Monsters and Morons
by TzuiAssassian
Summary: Spring break is finally here, and what does Negi decide to do with his spare time? Play 'Monsters and Mayhem', the newest and most advanced video game, of course.
1. monsters and mayhem

**FILE:001  
****.:**monsters and mayhem**:.**

The bell rang and the response given by the students was far more cheery than usually. Maybe it was because everyone was in a good mood; maybe because it was a Friday and they wouldn't have to go to school (or do school work) for the weekend; or maybe it was just because for the next two weeks, the entire school would be off on spring break. It was probably the last one.

Negi Springfield was packing away his things when one of his roommates, Asuna Kagurazaka, came up to him. "Hey, Negi."

He looked up from his planner and smiled politely. "Yes, Asuna-San?"

"Yeah, it's spring break already, and me and Konoka already made plans for tonight, so we prob'ly won't get back to the room 'till late, 'kay?"

"That's fine," He replied, and she left the classroom with his brown-haired roommate. Sighing, he finished packing and, as always, left the classroom last, walking towards the dorm alone and letting his thoughts wander freely.

.:. .:. .:. .:. .:.

The door closed silently as the lights were turned on and the ten-year-old teacher entered his dorm room alone as he usually would on Fridays. Asuna and Konoka would be out doing whatever they would and would come back late at night, worn-out, or sometimes even in the morning and muddled.

So, being the _great_ chef he was, Negi boiled some water and made instant ramen (with chicken flavoring!)

"Chamo-Kun's gone too," He said, plopping himself down on his loft with a bowl of manufactured noodles and a laptop booting up. He sighed again and ate. _Today feels weird,_ Negi thought to himself. _It feels like I've forgotten something I was supposed to do, like—_

And his phone went off.

Nearly dropping the bowl, the child teacher pulled out his phone from his pocket and flipped it open. 'REMEINDER', it read along the bottom-half of the screen. And in his little memo, it read; 'Open box.' That's it. Just two words; 'open' and 'box' that read, nondescriptly, 'open box' and was clearly describing about the opening of a three-dimensional object in a box-like shape.

"OH!"

Negi stuffed the last bit of the noodles in his mouth and set his bowl down on the table, rushing over to a sheet covering one half of the bottom of the his desk, whipping it off. And there was said three-dimensional object in a box-like shape, with a note that read 'NO TOuCHY!'

"Wonder what's actually in it..." And grabbing the letter opener off from the kitchen counter, he swiped the re-taped tape and flipped the flaps open to reveal the faint-green Styrofoam peanuts covering its contents. Though they seemed to overfill the cardboard, none spilled 'till Negi began grabbing peanuts and tossing them around the loft.

There was another box about half the size of the previous box which was opened lightning-fast. Some faint-_blue_ peanuts this time but not as much as in the other box. And there were some things that would confuse anyone (slightly) if they didn't know what they were.

On top was a futuristic-type of goggles with a mini-microphone like the ones used for computers. Coverings covered the ears when worn, and a black strap with 'MM' went around your noggin, with a small-ish box in the middle of the strap.

Under that was a pair of black, finger-less gloves that had the same 'MM' stitched on the back of 'em. On one glove was a tube the sized of the fat markers from a copyrighted brand, with a joystick-looking thing protruding from the top; a few buttons were on the side of the tube. The second glove was the same as the first although there wasn't a joystick on its tube.

And under the gloves was something that resembled a GPS system. There was a slit at the top and a few buttons on the margin of the bottom of the face—a screen covered the rest of the front. There was a strap that was larger from the first that was connected to the back. There were two blank cards the size of credit cards with some odd lines going across the long-side.

Last, on the very, very bottom of the box was a booklet. That's it—a black booklet with a familiar logo on the cover.

"..."

Goggles, gloves, GPS-thingy, cards, and a booklet, all in the box protected by Styrofoam peanuts.

"Okay then." Negi said slightly puzzled. This wasn't what the child teacher was expecting at all, though maybe it was a bit overwhelming to a kid.

He grabbed the booklet and flipped open to the first page, which cleared up one question revolving around his head; what's 'MM'?

'Monsters and Mayhem,' read the first page.

_**M**onsters and **M**ayhem_—makes sense.

And he read on, his eyes widening so large it looked like they were going to pop out of his sockets. Luckily they didn't, but you could never be too careful.

'Oooh's and 'Ahhh's and 'Cool!'s and 'Awesome!' Everything seemed to awe the child, for Monsters and Mayhem was the newest and a very technological game, whereas the player can finally get into and interact with other players via (difficult) wireless connections.

Of course, it's all virtual, but still—

"Oooooh..."

.:. .:. .:. .:. .:.

The screen goes black the minute Negi pressed the button, and then the game loads to reveal the title page. It had the same logo as the glove and the console, and there were three menus to choose; 'PLAY' was the first but was darker than the others, 'NEW CHARACTER' was lighter and 'OPTIONS' was light, too.

He clicked on the 'NEW CHARACTER' menu to come to a new page. This one said NEW CHARACTER at the top and in the center was a box that read 'character name' and a keyboard with letters.

_My character's name?_ Negi thought, staring at the blinking line and the letters. _I never thought about what I'd _name _myself..._ Using the in-game keyboard, the child teacher picked out the first 'name' that came to his head. _'Airai'. That's me_,_ I suppose_ and then clicked enter. A new page popped up which had two boxes, one read male and the other female. Instinctively, he clicked male and a new page came with a couple more boxes. These ones read 'human' 'elf' 'half-elf' 'dwarf' and 'halfling'. He clicked on 'human', and the next page asked which class 'Airai' would be. There were many choices to choose from, some of which read; swordsman, archer, mage, cleric, and thief.

_I could go with mage or swordsman, but it would be cool to be something else. Gah, this is annoying!_ Negi made his decision after thinking _warrior or mage?!_ so many times. The next page that came up took a while to load, but when it did, the newly-named 'Airai' was surprised.

This was more or less a quiz.

There were about fifteen or twenty questions, maybe—he lost count after awhile—and these questions were mostly personality rather than 'are you...?' or 'what kind of...?' They seemed so ordinary, like 'Out of the following foods, which would you prefer right now?' and 'What three words best describe you?'

Finally, the screen changed back to the title page and 'PLAY' was lit while 'NEW CHARACTER' wasn't. When you click on it, three submenus pop up, the first of which was, when clicked, a list of the dungeons and campaigns you could choose from, in order from easiest to hardest. There were only about thirteen at this time, and according to the list, there were two for 'noobs' like Airai. The one that sparked his interest was one name 'The Underland'—the second read something unintelligible to the ten-year-old.

So, he clicked on 'The Underland', and the game began.

.:.author's.:.note.:.

Chapter one finally completed after so long. If this game was real, I would be playing it already.

Anyways, I might need some ideas/inspirations for characters (OCs and character's characters) as well as for dungeons and campaigns and shtuff.

Sorry I haven't reviewed any stories for a while, but life can be busy when it wants to. And, um...Oh, I'll be away the week of April 7th during my spring break, so I won't be able to write then. I'll try to update this fanfic before I leave, but you know I never do, so it might be a while 'till chapter 2 comes out. (sorry (sweat))


	2. zephyr

**FILE:002  
****.:**zephyr**:.**

The screen turned black as the dungeon loaded. I was waiting for a long time with this 'whoosh' sound in the ear phone. My vision was sometimes obscured by wavy streaks of faint white, almost like a white aurora borealis but in a video game. Finally, a 'thump,' and my HP bar showed up in the top-right corner of the screen with some damage taken.

It might've been the game or my eyes, but something was definitely wrong. I would move the control stick in any direction but everything was black. If I'd press the 'start' button on the controller, all my stats and equipment showed up, along with some other things I didn't understand. There was a constant current of air up above, but nothing else.

So I was confused.

"Hello?" I called out, looking around and listening intently for any sounds. To my luck, I heard something.

"Hello?" A response coming from my left and I began walking in that direction. After bumping into a wall once or twice, I saw an orange glow of fire and called back.

"Hello?"

"Hello?"

"Hello?"

"Hello?"

This was getting no where.

"Who's there?" The voice asked, and at that time I came only a few meters from the source of the fire.

"Yeah, I'm kinda new at this game and I was wondering if you could help me out..." I flipped out the emo-con menu and sweat-dropped, even though no one could see me.

"Hey, are you...?" The person came closer, and I saw a face reflecting the firelight. It then grew larger and I could see as clear as the fire would permit.

"Sorry, I thought you were the person I was waiting for." He sweat-dropped, and then looked at me. "You're new, huh? I guess I could show you around, though I hope _he_ doesn't mind..."

We were in a long tunnel that seemed to twist and turn every which way. Behind me was some giant tube-shaped cavern that went up for kilometers. The floor was littered with rocks and some brown-lumps, no plants or moisture anywhere.

"Follow me—I know the way around like the back of my hand." He showed me his hand, and then flipped it over so it was now facing him. "Oh, that's new..."

And so I did. I followed behind this guy for a long time, something that seemed like forever though I might've been exaggerating a bit. Afterwards, he stopped and blew out the torch, though I saw we were in front of an entirely black wall before he extinguished the fire.

But this guy just walked right through it.

"What the—?" I wasn't sure if he was using a spell, but normal people can't walk through walls, now can they?

"Just come on already," He said from the other side.

And so I went through, shutting my eyes. As I passed through the wall, a warmer air hit me and there was a slight feeling of something soft for a second, then it was over. Yeah, pretty boring actually.

"Dude, open your eyes! What if there was a level forty dragon on the other side or something?"

I peeked through a small slit and saw something else—a city. A giant city carved out of the rock with carvings along all the walls of buildings and torches strewn on their sides. A giant tower farther down in the city was a good deal higher than the structures where I stood. People of all kinds were bustling around, from people who looked like swordsmen and mages to some that looked like ordinary civilians.

"Where..._what_ is this?" I exclaimed, gaping at the details and I almost forgot I was playing a video game.

"This," He said, extending his arm, "is the human city of Regalia."

"'Re-gaw-lee-uh'?" My eyes wandered from the buildings and wanderers to the character besides me and back. "It's amazing, really, the details and stuff. But where exactly are we?"

"Reg—Oh, I get you. We're, like, a hundred or something miles beneath New York." He smiled triumphantly. "Technically speaking. Anyways, you said you're new at this game, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Oh well you—" He stopped himself and stood silent for a moment, probably thinking I'm some dimwit character or something, then stated, "Okay, then, nevermind. Anyways, what exactly are you playing as? You don't look like any class I know of."

"Well, I sorta don't even know how I look like myself..." Sweat-drop.

"Follow me, I know a place." _This guy's a bit weird, but I guess some people are just that way, huh?_

So I followed the character again, and maybe in about five minutes we came to a small, closed-off area that was surrounded by high walls. Through a hidden passage, we entered, and there was something I hadn't seen since I got here. Plants. There were some newborn trees along the perimeter of the space and some grass on the ground, but most of it was dirt. In the center was a pool of clear water maybe three meters wide.

"This is sort of my little 'secret' spot. It's just a small spring but this area is quiet and no one else knows about it. Besides, no one comes over to this part of Regalia." He stared intently at me, looking at my character up and down. "Really, I don't even know if you chose a class or not. Though your signature does prove you're a character..."

"Signature?"

He nodded. "Your nose. That's where your signature is." I covered my nose as if I had the world's worst pimple on it, though he just laughed in response. "Look in the water—it's really reflective so you can see yourself really well." Leaning forward, I looked into the pool and saw my character for the first time.

I had white, shoulder-length hair, dark blue eyes, and a horizontal line across my nose and off on both sides—my _signature_, apparently. I was wearing a blue and white outfit of a jacket and shorts, as well as a black shirt (maybe). There were long, white mavericks on my arms, covering halfway up between my shoulder and elbow. Around my waist was a belt with pockets for carrying items and a bag for larger things on the back.

I'd have to agree with this guy—if I didn't know I chose a mage as my class, I wouldn't look like one.

"Wow..." I muttered. "This is what a mage wears? I would've thought something more like long cloaks and shadowy features, but...yeah..."

"Wait—you're a mage?"

"Yeah.

"Where's your staff? All mages use staffs or wands or something, right? Didn't you equip yours?"

"Uh..."

He sighed. "Go to your menu, click on 'equipment', and go to 'weapon' and equip your starter wand/staff thingy. Then make sure to equip whatever else, 'kay?"

I finished what he told me to do, when I finally decided to look at what this guy was.

He had blue hair that covered up his right eye and really dark blue eyes. His signature-thingy were three 'slashes' on either side of the bottom of his face. He wore a white and light-brown garment over his armor and two belts on his waist, holding his sword, bag of stuff, and pockets for trinkets and potions. His right hand was equipped with a gauntlet and forearm guard, whilst his left arm looked less warrior-like.

"Are you...a swordsman?" I asked.

"Yup yup." He smiled using an emo-con. "By the way, what's your name?"

"My character's?" He nodded. "I'm Airai, the human mage."

"That explains why you're taller..." Now that he mentions it, he was right. I was a good five or six centimeters taller than he was. "It's just, like, two inches though..." He sighed.

"What's your character?"

"Oh, right. Sorry; I'm Zephyr, the half-elf swordsman." Zephyr looked up in the sky as if he heard something. "You ready?"

"For what?" I used the emo-con to make a puzzled look.

"For the dungeon. That's why you came here, right? I _was_ going to go with my other friend, but he didn't show. So I'm going with you!"

And before I could protest, Zephyr shot out, up and went to start the dungeon we'd both be accomplishing, as well as the beginning of our friendship.

.:.author's.:.note.:.

Chapter two's complete, and I'll upload Airai (Ai-rye) and Zephyr (Zief-fer) on my website soon, if not already (link can be found on my profile page).

_Diablo200030002002_ -- Thanks for the suggestions. The three-head one is very...unique. Might use it later on.

_Lazuras Lefure_ – Yeah, I might try to draw a basic concept of the game, but if I ever get around to it. Chiu, huh? Maybe...

_Hydriatus_ – It's not_ only_ going to be written entirely in the game; no one has _that_ much time. I never really thought of bringing her back, but I prob'ly will now. :D

_ShadowGirdo_ – Yeah, sorry chapter one was short-ish, but I'll try to make future chapters longer. And thanks for all the suggestions (you really like .hack, huh?)—can't believe it's not all of 'em—though I'll try to include the trading town-place and maybe the Leo guy. Gah, so many ideas...

_Runekn_ – Thanks, and I'm guessing a lot of people'll want to see Chiu play... (sigh).

Thanks for the suggestions, though I'd like to hear place suggestions as well as character suggestions. Chapter three coming whenever I finish it...


	3. the underland

**FILE:003  
**.:the underland:.

The city of Regalia is over one-hundred and fifty kilometers under the city of New York—its buildings are carved out of the stones and is a level one dungeon for those who will be playing Monsters and Mayhem. As for me, I happened to be one of those _lucky_ contestants.

Currently, I was following behind the swordsman I met when I first arrived in the dark tunnels, and it was actually hard to keep up with him; this new system was a bit tricky to understand, what with the controller being two gloves and all, but I'd get use to it soon.

"Wait...up...Zephyr!" I called out through the microphone, and boy was he fast. It was a bit hard trying not to run into people and buildings. Maybe after five minutes of running, I saw what he was running towards—the tall tower deeper within Regalia. It was a good one or two hundred meters tall and unlike every other building, there weren't any carvings on its faces. The only opening I could see was a ledge a bit over halfway up, and there didn't seem to be any other way in.

"Hurry up!" The blue-haired called after me, and I deliberately ran faster to maintain his speed.

Finally, as I arrived at the base of the tower, I still saw no way to get up inside the building—I mean, it's not like we can _fly_ right?

"Hey...Zephyr..." I panted, filling my lungs with air again. "How are we...supposed to...get in there?"

He smiled mischievously. "Don't worry, there's a way." And off he jogged a little farther around a corner. I followed, and what I saw took me by surprise. In front of me, was a very large—

"Bat!" I cried, stumbling backwards. It had fur that was grey and blue in color and dark blue eyes staring at me. It was a tad taller than I was when it stood up, and its wings were large despite they were folded close to its body.

"Shush!" Zephyr said. "Don't scream loudly—bats don't like loud sounds much." He stroke the bat's neck and the giant animal lowered its body. The swordsman climbed on like it was a horse, and beckoned for me to do the same. I'll admit it, I was scared, but I reluctantly climbed on behind. "Hold on, but not too tight."

And with that, the bat flew off, extending its wings nearly two meters from either side. I gripped some fur on the back and held on tight.

We ascended higher, and I forced myself to keep my eyes open despite the slight nauseous feel I felt in my stomach. _Even if this is a game,_ I thought. _I don't think I'll ever get used to this._

It was over quickly, actually. We were already atop the tower and the nightmarish ride was over.

Zephyr jumped off and bent his ear towards the bat's head. "Alph says that you're holding on too tightly and it hurts him. Just let your feet dangle off to the sides next time." He started walking inwards.

"Yeah, okay..." I slowly got off the bat, muttering a 'sorry' for holding _on to my life_ so hard, and followed. "I'll dangle 'em next—wait! I'm going to have to fly on that again!?"

He turned around and smiled. "Yup yup. That's how people get around. Bats and humans—well, Regalians, technically—have this pact-thingy. They work together for mutual and material gains. Now c'mon! We need to talk to Vikus."

"Who?"

"He's right over there on the other side of the High Hall." The swordsman pointed to one of the few living creatures on this floor. The man, Vikus, was probably around Zephyr's height and had silvery blonde hair. He looked old and his skin was more translucent than a normal person's skin. The thing that offset me most was his eyes—deep violet. I don't think this guy was any normal character.

"Hello," Vikus said. His voice sounded tired and he also had small bags under his eyes. "Welcome to Regalia."

"Hello, Vikus," Zephyr replied, nodding slightly. I did a little nod off to the side.

"Would you like to help out our city? There are several tasks that need to be fulfilled soon, and if you two would like to help..."

"_Hey Airai,_" Zephyr said to me in whisper mode. "_What would you like to do? There are four tasks on this list here, so chose one._"

And there was a virtual list floating in front of Vikus with the four tasks. I didn't understand the wording very well, but I chose the second one. "_That one would be the most fun, huh?_" Zephyr smiled.

"Vikus, we would like to help to defeat the gnawers."

The old man smiled. "Very well. Head down to the arena to train and then you'll be sent off the help Regalian troops." He nodded, dismissing us. We walked back to the over-sized bat and got on.

"The arena to train, huh?" I said after I uneasily swung my legs over the sides of the bat.

"Yup." Alph took off away from the tower and towards another part of the city. "They're going to teach us a bit about how to kill the gnawers, then they'll send us off. Once we kill a set amount, we go back to the arena and finish the quest. Easy, neh?"

"I...I suppose so. What's a gnawer anyway?"

Zephyr turned his head to face me, making an evil grin. "You'll see."

.:.:.:.:.:.

We were sent off to a series of catacombs nearby the city and were told to defeat ten gnawers in order to finish this quest. The person down in the arena told us some of the weak spots and the 'critical hits'. The only part that scared me was that there wasn't any light down here in the Underland except for the torches. I was holding ours while Alph was flying and Zephyr was muttering things I didn't really understand.

We flew for ten minutes then landed in a wide cavern with several tunnels leading to all sort of directions. It was really dark and if I could guess, smelly and cold too.

"I'll be waiting here. Hurry back as fast as possible." I didn't recognize the voice; it wasn't mine or Zephyr's, and no one else was around. I was afraid it was a monster, but my companion stroked Alph's head. It was the bat who spoke, and this place was getting weirder by the minute.

After we entered the tunnel closest to us, I switched to whisper mode and started asking things. "_So people down here fly bats and talk to them and they talk back, too!?_"

Zephyr looked at me, moving his right hand to clutch the hilt of his sword. "You don't have to speak in whisper mode—just don't talk super loud or anything." Unwarily, I went back to the original talking setting. "And yeah, bats talk too, but them and all the Regalians are NPCs so they can't get into a full-on conversation with you."

"NPCs?" I whispered.

"Yup. 'Non Player Characters'. Haven't you played RPGs before? Sheesh!" He sighed.

"They're programmed and can do certain things within a range of actions. Alph doesn't talk unless it's part of a quest or something, but you can fly anywhere if you're in the front." Zephyr flashed a smile at me. "It's like flying a mini, furry airplane..."

"Okay, I get it..." Looking around, I made sure to keep an eye out for any of the gnawers and to listen for any movements that were different than ours. "So...how do we make sure we defeat the monster before it defeats us? Like, battling..."

"It's really fun, actually." He said, and I noticed that even though he was talking so carefree, his eyes were darting around. "You use the controllers—the gloves—to attack. Like me for instance; when I get into a battle my sword is already drawn. Then it's a real time battle, sort of like the _Tales_ series. I'd use the joystick to move around and if my sword is in my right hand, I'd swing my right hand in real life as if I was actually carrying a sword. Same goes with my left."

"Isn't that hard? Y'know, moving and swinging your hands like crazy?"

"Emmm...not really. I bought another joystick for my left glove so I can move with that hand and swing with my dominant right. It's easier."

"You can? But I—" I darted my head. There was a sound, a weird sound, but it was there. Really faint. Something like a scratching and a tapping... "What is that?!" I whispered really quietly.

"Be on your guard. We've probably walked far enough. Set the torch on that nook over there and be careful."

"'Kay." I placed the only source of light down gently, but it started to dim. "Zephyr, how will we know if there's a gnawer...?"

"It's not that hard really." And the torch went out; it was pitch black.

But the voice that spoke was not that of the half-elf standing besides me. It was rougher and sounded older.

All of a sudden, another torch was lit by Zephyr, whom I saw pull out his sword. Slowly, I turned around to see who spoke behind me. Instead of seeing another character, I saw a jaw with sharp teeth gleaming in the torchlight and a pair of red eyes and claws. I became face-to-face with a giant, two meter tall rat.

.:.author's.:.note.:.

Armor and weapons: zero dollars. Making new friends: zero dollars. Being attacked by a six-foot tall rat: priceless. There are some things gold coins can't buy. For everything else, there's, erm...haven't gotten that yet...

_Diablo200030002002_ -- Haha, yeah that's be funny. :D

_Runekn_ – Yeah—only people who have no lives would play 24/7. A character such as...well, I can't exactly read minds yet, now can I?

I'm going to prob'ly post a new picture so look for it on my site :D (yay).


	4. gnawers

**FILE:004  
**.:gnawers:.

"Rat!" I exclaimed, jumping backwards before the razor sharp claw could strike my torso. Zephyr readied his sword and the torch, flanking the giant animal on the other side. My staff was already in my hand—one of the automatic controls that occurs when there's a battle. I took another step back, outstretched my arm to cast a spell and—

Oh man, I never learned how to use magic.

The gnawer lunged with both claws at me, but my friend slashed it on its right side, causing him to stumble and miss me.

"Attack him!" The blue-haired swordsman said, dodging an uppercut from the rat. He stuck the torch right in the face of the creature—not a pretty sight, no doubt—and thrust his sword through the stomach. To my dismay, it wasn't dead yet, nearly, but still holding on to life.

"How!? The people in the arena didn't say how to use magic!"

Just then, the rat spun, arms extended, clawing both of us in the chests. The good thing was that it looked fatigued and nearly collapsed after its feat.

"You've got a dagger, don't'cha?" Zephyr slashed but barely missed as the gnawer ducked. "Use it."

To my stupid-ness, I was clutching a simple dagger in my left hand which I didn't notice earlier, and charged. The giant rat was facing my companion that I came from behind and thrust the upper left of his back. Luckily, that seemed to have done it, because it fell to the ground and disappeared, leaving nothing left in its place.

My weapons were now sheathed and my health bar said I took three points of damage, leaving me with enough… But this was only the first one, and there were nine more to go.

"Are you serious?" Zephyr said, walking over towards me. "You're a mage and you don't know how to use your own magic?"

"Well..." I mumbled, scanning the cavern with what the torchlight gave off. "Could you teach me? I mean, you know so much about the game already and..."

He sighed, and began walking further into the catacombs. "Sorry, but I'm a swordsman, not a mage. I dunno how to use magic, but my friend does. Next time, try holding out your hand and say a spell—something like that."

"How?"

"Ugh... Try opening the menu and look for some type of spell list. Maybe that'll help." The screen opened, and I searched the top part where the different sub-menus were. Some of them read 'equipment', and 'options', and 'status'. There was one that said 'commands' so I checked that one out. And what do'ya know? Another sub-menu was 'spells'—magic-users only, of course—and I clicked on it. It was a list of the spells I knew and if clicked on, a little description and whatnot. This is what it read;

_Fire  
__--a simple fire spell_

_Heal light  
__--recovers a small amount of health_

_Shield  
--increases armor stat_

_Wind  
__--a simple wind spell_

"Okay, I've found out my spells," I said, closing the screen and walking besides my friend. "So I just hold out my arm where I want to cast and say the spell, right?"

"I think so. Not sure tho'." We continued down the tunnel, Zephyr holding the torch this time, his hand still clutched on the hilt.

You know how sometimes there's the feeling that there's something watching you, but when you look around nothing's there, right? Well, it felt like that the entire time we were walking, but the fire could only illuminate so much. And we would've never guessed when the gnawers would barrage.

"Wait," I muttered, stopping and looking around for the millionth time. "I hear something..." He stopped too, keeping his ears open. There was a sound in the air, the same sound I heard earlier. Faint scratching and tapping and clicking. It was eerie and yet it never got louder than the volume I'd hear. Then it stopped.

I saw Zephyr pull out his sword, and my staff was drawn as well. I turned down the way we came and saw a shadowy figure, two meters tall, running straight towards us.

"Blast it!" The swordsman said who was facing the other direction from the rat.

I nodded, rose my left arm right were the creature was, and spoke. "Fire!" And out erupted a flame from my palm, flying forward and striking the monster in the abdomen. It stumbled, but still kept running towards me, only a few seconds away. "Wind!" A gust of air exploded from my hand and raced ahead, landing another hit.

That's when I was attacked.

My character nearly fell to the ground, and, turning, I noticed a second gnawer above me, about to strike again before it was hit by Zephyr's sword. It flew back a couple of meters, hit a rock, but still stood, shaken. I moved around again to see the first rat three meters away, its sharp claws extended. "Fire!" It collapsed and disappeared. My health was lower, but still in good shape.

"Three down." I exclaimed. Maybe I was happy 'cause I defeated one of the gnawers myself, albeit if my friend hadn't slashed the other one, I would've been dead meat. Literally.

"Yeah. Seems like you've got control of your magic, then?" I nodded. "What other spells can you use?"

"Just some defensive ones like healing. I only know those two attack spells, though." We continued walking. "How can I learn new ones?"

He was silent for a short while, thinking. "Prob'ly by leveling up. I'm not sure what kind of spells you can learn, but that's how you get stronger."

"How?"

"What?"

"How do you level up?"

He laughed, almost dropping the torch. "You're kidding, right?" I shook my head. "Oh my gosh, you've _never_ played an RPG... You've gotta gain experience points by defeating monsters and by completing quests and dungeons. Once you gain a certain amount, you'll level up as well as increase in stats and—in your case—earn new spells."

"Awesome..." I replied.

"Yeah, it _is_ awesome."

.:.:.:.:.:.

Nine gnawers down, one to go. Zephyr and myself, Airai, made a great team. When we were attacked by either one or two gnawers, I'd flame it and he'd slash it. It usually took three hits, so one of us got the last blow. If we were hurt badly, I'd heal us both using my magic. He had items that healed energy—_Monsters and Mayhem_ version of 'MP', he said—so we were an awesome team.

While we were scouting out for the last gnawer, we ended up back at the large cavern where our bat Alph was waiting, accompanied by other bats from other players. Some were huddled together in a group while others hopped around or flew above.

After we entered another tunnel, I asked "What's with all the bats?"

Zephyr continued to look forward. "Those are other players' bats. When we got here, no one else was here so Alph was by himself. Now more players have arrived, so there are more bats. Duh." He smirked.

"Har har," I say sarcastically. "Anyways, what happens after we slay the last rat?"

"It dies."

"...and then?"

"Then we go back to Vikus and complete the quest. We'll get experience points and maybe spoils. Quest is over, and everyone's probably happy by then."

"Oh."

It was deadly quiet for some reason. There wasn't any sign of life or any remote noise anywhere. We seemed to have walked for the longest of times. Checking my stats, I saw that I had enough health and energy if we encountered another pair of rats, so I'd be fine.

"Stop," Zephyr said, looking around. I did the same, but still heard and saw absolutely nothing. Nothing 'till...

"What is that noise?" I whispered, looking everywhere. It was sort of like when you roll your tongue off the roof of your mouth to make a 'ploop ploop' sound. It sounded as if it was coming from every direction, even through walls. My staff was grasped in my hand, but there wasn't any threat I could see. Until…

Two figures scurried behind rocks to the front of me, about seven or eight meters away. I already knew they were gnawers before I could make out their shadowy bodies. They drew closer ducking to keep themselves concealed.

"_Looks like we've got company,_" I whispered, waiting for the creatures to attack. Zephyr nodded. Our weapons were drawn—we've taken down nine of them already, two more will be a cinch.

That's when it happened.

"Watch out!" My companion said a little too late. We were both hit from behind, knocking us to the ground. As I turned over to see the enemy, I instead saw three giant rats behind me, claws extended and jaws open madly like rabid beasts. As I stood up I was whacked again by another rat. My eyes were opened wide.

Surrounding me were five of the gnarliest rats I've seen all day, maybe a bit taller and more ravaged than the previous ones we've fought. Their eyes were bloodshot, staring at me, ready to kill whoever they came across—even their own kind, probably. And in the center of it all, were myself and Zephyr, both at half health and power; we surely were no match.

.:.author's.:.note.:.

Okay, Airai and Zephyr don't have the best of luck. Hopefully the rats won't skin them alive...yet...

_Hydriatus_ -- Regalia and giant rats are references, but they're different than where you're thinking from. What are the chances of actually _meeting_ giant rats though? (I'll see if I can fit in the Corsair(s))

_Diablo200030002002_ -- Glad to hear you're liking the story :D And I'll try to put in that idea sometime soon, though I'll have to think of the right character personalities for it.

I'm going to try to upload a new picture soon (now if I decide not to procrastinate).


	5. vanished

**FILE:005  
**.:vanished:.

I could feel the blood pounding in my ears. Five gnawers were surrounding Zephyr and myself, and the chances of both of us getting out _alive_ were slim to none.

The four 'smaller' ones would take turns pounding and slashing at us. We'd fight back, but our attacks weren't able to do much considering our circumstances. I think that out of the six times I've been hit, I've only been able to parry the rats once or twice. They're pretty, well, _smart_ for rodents...

_How on Earth can we defeat these—gah! _I was struck on my right side, and just missed when I tried to counterattack with my dagger. _My health is going to hit zero in, like, two more hits. _I quickly glimpsed at Zephyr, and he was holding up, but not for much longer. Then I noticed something.

The fifth gnawer, a bit bigger and meaner than the rest, has yet to attack and seems to be giving orders to the four that are pummeling the humans—human and half-elf, if you want to be technical. _Maybe if I can distract him, we can finish off these guys and—whoa!_ Barely dodging a claw, I looked straight at the larger rat, jumped and threw my dagger.

It was a long shot.

As it was flying through the air, time slowed down slightly as if to add effect. I knew that all twelve eyes were on the dagger, watching as it gained closer. Closer and closer till...

"Yes!" I exclaim, seeing my weapon slide in through the fur of the shoulder like butter. The four rats were all staring at their leader in shock; soon they'll be more rabid and start attacking recklessly. So I did first.

"Fire!" Flames erupted from my palm at the closest gnawer. "Fire!"

My strategy was just to cause as much damage to the enemies as possible and then, assuming all goes well, strike the leader without its minions attacking us. Oh, and Zephyr caught on too. He was slashing left and right at the two creatures closest to him. Soon, it'll be a two-on-one.

"Wind!" The first of the two of the gnawers fell, leaving me with one left. This one lunged forward at me, its jaw extended, sharp teeth wanting to pierce my skin. And he did. Falling back slightly, I whacked it with my staff as payback. Then before the rat could strike again, I shot more flames. Luckily, it fell to the floor, disappearing like the rest.

To my right, the fourth gnawer fell at my companion's sword.

Now there was only one left.

It stared at us, a mix of confusion and anger in its red eyes, glancing between the two of us. Any moment it would jump at us and, at the amount of health left, we'd be goners.

"Charge!" I screamed. Through the sides of my eyes I didn't see Zephyr following suit but rummaging through an overstuffed bag strapped to his waist. _Oh well,_ I thought, running straight at the slightly larger than normal gnawer. Planting my feet at its base, I rose my hand, aiming right in between the eyes, closing mine. "Fire!" I shouted with the most power I could.

In my mind I could see an enormous flame emerging from my hand, scorching the entire face and then Zephyr and I would defeat him, run off to tell Vikus, and earn loads of experience points.

But...it seemed like nothing happened.

Opening my eyes, I saw a giant claw coming at me, hitting my enough force to fly a good couple of meters away. _Wh-what just happened...?!_

"You dumb butt!" I heard Zephyr yell at me. "Why'd you go in and charge?!"

Looking forward I saw the blue-haired swordsman feinting off an attack at his midsection. "I thought it'd work..." I mumbled, getting up off the dirt. "Besides, how—wait! Why didn't I die?" Located in the corner of my screen was my health and energy. The latter was practically depleted, but I somehow regained nearly half off my total health.

"While you were trying to use your magic, I was smart and used items on us to heal our health. Unfortunately—" Dodging another claw, he sidestepped to the left and swung his sword at the stomach of the large rat. It grazed the belly, but it made contact. "Unfortunately I'm out of items to heal energy."

_But if I'm out of energy, then I can't cast spells. And what's a mage without casting spells?_ Helplessly I looked around the cavern and noticed something that I'd forgotten for awhile.

My dagger.

Running towards it, I picked it up and flanked the gnawer from his back. As I was trying to slash his back with a sword blade a little over a decimeter, its tail was getting in the way. If I'd get in close to attack, the creature would move around and wave its tail frantically. I think I got hit once or twice.

_Darn, I won't be able to get in and attack at this rate...If only I could use some magic._

"On three!" Zephyr yelled as he ducked. "One! Two! Three!" On command I slashed as hard as I could with my dagger while he hacked with his sword. The rat definitely didn't see that one coming. It stumbled to the ground, writhing in agony at the fresh-spilled blood. I was half-expecting it to stop moving and disappear and the two of us gain loads of experience points.

But that didn't happen.

Instead, it thrashed in all directions with all four paws, trying to attack either of us as a counterattack. The gnawer barley scathed my shin, but it started flaying around slower and slower...

"I...think...we got it." I said, exasperated. My health was in good shape, my energy was still depleted, and my experience points were—_wait a sec..._ "Hey...Zephyr. Shouldn't we...have gotten..."

At that moment, the rat jumped up from the ground and lunged its entire body forward at me, claws extended. The weight of the creature brought me to the floor. With my dagger arm bent underneath my body and no energy to cast a spell, I thought I was a goner.

"Ze...phyr..." I managed to gasp out from beneath the gnawer, who was still kicking and waving his arms around like crazy. And Zephyr was trying to help get this thing off of me, but there were some things that were problematic. First; because this freak of a rat was on top of me, stabbing would be out of question because I'd probably lose all my health too. Second; well, I couldn't think of it at the moment, but I knew there was a second.

"Try to push him off," the blue-haired swordsman said, tugging and trying to push the creature off of my character's body.

"C-can't."

"Ugh..." I hadn't noticed it earlier, but my health _was_ depleting, with hardly anything left. Soon it would drop to zero and— "Oh yeah!" Looking past the rabid face off the monster, I saw Zephyr searching through an over-sized pack strapped to one of the belts around his waist. "Ah-ha!" Out of the pack came a dagger about the size of mine, but just a miniature version of his sword.

Aiming at the heart, I guessed, he thrust the blade in through the fur and flesh of the gnawer, and surprisingly, it jumped into the air, stared at us with menacing eyes, and charged.

Luckily, however, it finally died and fell to the floor, disappearing into the air, leaving a trail of gnawer blood behind.

"Getting up, I stared at Zephyr with a blank face. "Why didn't you remember you had that dagger beforehand!" He sweat-dropped and smiled at me innocently.

"Well," He murmured, shoving it back into the pack. "I don't use my dagger, much. Usually just my sword and my bow." As he began walking back down the tunnels towards Alph—the giant flying talking bat—I heard a weird little tune play. Then, across my screen in blue and white font, came two words;

_LEVEL UP_

My first thought was 'a_wesome, I'm level two now!_', but then I saw how ironic it was. I leveled up _after_ fighting the five gnawers with half health. The worst part was that I recovered a third of both my stats, and—yes there's an _and_—it said I also learned a new spell.

I smacked my hand, thinking just how late that level up could've helped out, and followed Zephyr back to our bat.

The room was different when we entered it for the third time, Alph waiting where he was when we came.

"So, Airai," My human friend said to me. "Why don't you sit in the front this time?"

My eyes bulged out of their sockets. "What!? Why?"

"'Cause, it's fun." He smiled. "Bet you've never ridden a giant bat in real life before. Besides, it's not that hard even. You hold your hands in front of your body like you're holding reigns, and move them to the left and right, up and down. You just fly back to Regalia. Simple."

"Oh man... Okay, I'll try," I said, sighing, and climbing onto the front of the bat. _Nice bat. Don't let me fall down, okay?_

It took about five minutes or so to get back to the city. Flying wasn't too terribly bad—actually fun. I had almost crashed into a stalagmite or the wall six or seven times, but it was still awesome. It did feel like you _were_ flying...

The torches hung up around the buildings hurt my eyes after being in the catechism for so long. I bet I'd have become nocturnal if I had stayed there longer.

We flew into the High Hall from above—there was no ceiling—and saw several other adventurers walking around, asking other people to join them on their quest and whatnot. Vikus, the old Regalian man, was still standing off to the side, smiling happily.

As we approached, Zephyr spoke up, "Excuse me, Vikus. My friend and I have finished our quest of defeating ten gnawers." The old man looked at both of us and nodded, still smiling.

"Good job," He said. "For completing the quest, I feel it necessary to award you with a bit of a small reward." Handing over our prizes, I saw that it was one thousand experience points and gold pieces. "Oh," Vikus said before we turned to leave. "I have noticed you defeated more than you were assigned."

"Five of them jumped us at once!" I blurted out.

"Ah, I see." He looked around the room as if searching for someone. "But nonetheless, I hope that this will help you out." We were given an extra thousand gold pieces each. My eyes were wide because now I had money to spend on stronger equipment and items and stuff...

While we were leaving the High Hall, the Regalian bid us a small farewell. "Fly you high, both of you."

.:.:.:.:.:.

We were walking amongst the streets of Regalia. The buildings still stood out with the light flickering over the carvings. Nearly twice as many people were walking around, going from structure to structure. When we past by an armory, I couldn't help but want to walk right in.

"Trust me—don't." I stared at Zephyr with an odd look. We had money and there was a store. Two and two together... "This store doesn't have as much good stuff as you might want to buy. Next time you play, head on over to Agora Bazo."

"Why?"

He smiled. "Well, it happens to be the tr—"

And that's when Zephyr and the human city vanished.

.:.author's.:.note.:.

Dungeon one: complete. Number of dungeons left to go through: unknown. Players to befriend: unknown. Chance of writer's block and procrastination: a probability.

_Hydriatus_ -- Yes yes, people don't like cliffhangers. But they're just fun to make readers go through. :D

I'll post up another picture. If chapter six comes out a little late than normal, blame my school—I've got three projects with three and a half weeks left of school.


	6. agora bazo

**FILE:006  
**.:agora bazo:.

Negi's eyes hurt from the dramatic change of light from the game to the room. Asuna and Konoka were standing in front of him, giving the boy a look as if he might've belonged in a psycho ward.

"What are you doing?" The orange-haired asked, who was holding the goggles above her head, inspecting them.

Making a pathetic attempt to reach the headset, the ten-year-old replied, "I was just playing a game and then _you_ had to pull the goggles off from my head. Gimme them back!"

"Asuna," Konoka said from the side, "just give it back to Negi-Kun. It's not like he goes around stealing your stuff like that."

Mumbling a retort under her breath, Asuna reluctantly gave Negi the headset. "Well, whatever. Besides, what is that anyway? Pretending to go snorkeling in our dorm?"

"Snorkeling?" He couldn't help but laugh a little. "It's this really awesome game called 'Monsters and Mayhem' and you get to create your own character and go through these dungeons and stuff and battle monsters and make frien—" The red-head child stopped, remembering what happened in the game before his student yanked the goggles off from his head. Quickly, he put them back on.

Through the display, he saw crowds of many player characters and the shops he and Zephyr were just passing by, but no sign of the swordsman.

Sighing, Negi took the headset off, turning the game off, and turned back to the girls.

"What's wrong, Negi-Kun?" Konoka asked.

"It's nothin'..." Looking around the room, his eyes glanced around until they landed on the clock on Asuna's desk. "Wait a minute!" Half-jumping off from the loft, he grabbed the clock and couldn't believe what the time was. "It's already past midnight?! No way!"

"Oh yeah," The orange-haired mumbled, yawning. "Me and Konoka were out shopping around and then we went to do karaoke and a little more shopping then Konoka said we should be heading back to our dorm. When we came in, we heard you talking to some guy named, erm, well whatever, and I thought you were sleep-talking but you were playing some game and, yeah..." Crawling into her bunk, she pulled the covers over herself and fell asleep the minute her head made contact.

Following suit, the other two crawled into their bunks and fell asleep.

.:.:.:.:.:.

It was early in the morning when the ten-year-old woke up. Even though he had stayed up so late, he couldn't fall back asleep and decided to just stay awake.

Getting down from his loft, he picked up the clock, which read it was almost six. "Ugh, I couldn't really fall asleep," the red-haired mumbled, looking over at his two roommates who were still sleeping. Then an idea came to his mind. "Maybe I could sneak out and play a little more as Airai..."

Changing into a pair of comfy jeans and a black shirt, he grabbed a backpack and began putting the game system into it as quietly as possible. Proceeding to the kitchen and opening the pantry door, Negi grabbed a packet of Pop-Tarts and a bottle of water for his 'breakfast'. All set, he slipped his shoes on and left the two girls sleeping in after their long night so he can play more _Monsters and Mayhem_.

Outside, it was slightly overcast and a bit cool. No one was walking around at this time and probably won't till around eight. _Let's see, where would be a good place to play..._ Looking around, he spotted the massive being known as the World tree—a gigantic tree whose area was nice to sit around on the benches and think.

And just like the rest of the campus, no one was there yet. Negi sat down on the grass, leaning against the huge trunk of the tree, eating his Pop-Tarts and gulping down a few swigs of water.

He took out the game from his pack, putting the gloves, system, and headset on, beginning to play the game again.

.:.:.:.:.:.

The screen faded on as I turned the game on for my second time. I mean, after playing just one of the dungeons, I got hooked.

The startup screen was blue, black and red, with sort of a medieval-ish look to it. Clicking on 'play' led to a second screen using the same layout but let me go to a dungeon, a forum, or inbox to message friends. Going to 'dungeon' again, I noticed this time that there was a location above 'The Underland' course. This read 'Agora Bazo'—just as Zephyr had told me earlier.

_Agora Bazo, huh_ I thought, wondering what it exactly was if it wasn't a dungeon with monsters and quests and stuff. _Better click on it and find out._

_CLICK_

The game loaded the area, and when it did, I sort of had to gasp.

The town had an ancient world feel with Greek-like architecture. The thing that surprised me the most would have to have been _where_ this town was; underwater. Yup. Above the buildings was some ocean with fish swimming above. You'd have to admit it was pretty cool.

Walking past some of the shops, I couldn't help but gawk at the window items. In fact, I went inside an armor shop, chock full of metal and leather armor as well as shields and helmets and other protective objects. However, when I decided to buy something, I found out that wizards and sorcerers couldn't wear armor like swordsmen. "That sucks," I mumbled, leaving the store.

Looking around at the other shops, there was a weaponry store, item shop, food market—apparently you could eat and prepare foods in this game, who knew?—a bazaar and a couple taverns and inns.

After stocking up on some items and food for later quests, I decided to head over to the tavern. Opening the doors, the inside carried a different quality than the outside, being mostly furbished in wood. I expected something more like an old western saloon or something, but this was better looking by tenfold. Many players were sitting down around tables, eating and talking with other characters. I couldn't help but smile.

Plopping myself down at one of the empty tables, I gazed around at the different classes these people were and how awesome that their characters looked. I then heard some deep-voiced laughter coming from the other side of the room. Turning around, my jaw dropped a bit because no way I could've missed that.

A good four meters away was a large human-like creature with a muscular build and maybe over two meters tall. The only thing out of place was the fact that it had three heads, all almost identical, all laughing at some character who sulked away from the table.

I couldn't help but gawk at this creature, and after it stopped laughing so much, it scanned the room with its six eyes—two on each head, which scared me a bit—and spotted myself looking at him. With a smirk, it stood up and came to my table, sitting itself down without asking.

The middle head opened its mouth to speak. "So, I see'ya vatchin' me ov'r there an' maybe yer interest'd in playin' me a little game, hurh?" Something sounded strange about the way it talked but maybe that's just how it was meant to.

"D'ya wanna play it?" This time it was the left head. The creature pulled out a sack and pulled out three human-sized skulls. The head on the right was staring at me kind of funny as if it was suspicious of me, but I was more suspicious of it.

"We-well, what kind of game is it…?" I stammered, a little scared of how it got those skulls.

All three heads smirked. "It's simple, jus' bet yer gold and pick a head. If you guess'd righ', then I give you two the amoun' of vhat you bet. Bu' if yer wron'…vell, I coul' use another head."

.:.author's.:.note.:.

Sorry, this chapter's a little later than normal. There are many excuses I could write, the biggest one school, but there's still too many. So I'll just say I was 'busy'.

_Hydriatus_ -- Yes yes, there's a thing called 'writing half-asleep', but oh well.

_Diablo__200030002002_ -- Glad you like the story so far. There probably will be a couple more of 3A students playing, but I don't know who yet.

Summer's started...that's all I've got for today.


	7. skulls : chiu

**FILE:007  
**.:skulls:.

I'd have to admit, I was more towards running away looking like an idiot than having to play this game and possibly lose my head.

The creature sitting across the table from me was at least half a meter taller and had three heads, with a body that reminded me of an orc. Placed on the table were three human-sized skulls staring at me with empty eyes.

"D'ya wanna play it?" The monster repeated, all three heads giving off awkward smirks.

In truth, no, I didn't want to play at all, but I think I was more afraid of what he'd do if I disregarded the game of his. _Maybe I should make a run for it..._ I thought, looking out of the corner of my eye at the door. It was a straight line from my chair; shouldn't be a problem._ I hope._

"Maybe some other time," I muttered, slightly raising myself out of my chair and getting ready to dash for it. A character just walked through the door, my eyes fixed on the frame. _3...2...1..._

I moved the joystick forward, a bit afraid of it snapping off. My in-game self took off lightning fast, then something happened. My view was heading downwards towards the wooden floor boards as I fell to the ground. _That's not right,_ I thought, turning my head to look behind me.

My butt was somehow glued to the chair, the legs sticking upwards as the seat tumbled along with me in my chances of escaping. I could hear faint laughing in the background from other players, as well as from the three-headed monster-thing.

"Har har har." Its laugh was disturbing. "Seems yerv got yer butt stick to tat chair. Har har har." I tried to pick myself up, but something else was keeping me down. I believe it was this things foot. "Now," I looked up at its three faces, all staring right at me. "Yer gonna play, righ'?" It grabbed the three skulls from the table and placed them right in front of my head. Then it showed me a black stone, and placed it under the first skull. "Jus' pick a head." It said.

It moved the outer two heads around the middle, then positioned them back in a line. Freeing one of my arms, I pointed towards the third one.

The stone was under it all right. But the creature smiled again. "Now, if I'd ver you, I'd bet some gold unles' ya, ya no, wanna see somethin happen to ya." At this, one of its arms reached behind his back and pulled out a rusty knife, the blade the length of my head, and stabbed it in the boards besides the skulls.

_Evil,_ I thought, pulling out two gold pieces from my bag with one arm and setting them down in front of the skulls. The monster didn't move, staring at the gold coins impatiently. I pulled out a few more, and it showed me the stone again, placing it under the middle skull. I stared intently at it, but as the heads were being moved around, they were also moving faster, making it harder for me to keep an eye on it. When they stopped, I picked the right skull; nothing. The left skull; nothing. He lifted the middle to reveal the stone, snatching my money away.

It picked up the knife and stabbed it one floorboard closer, two floorboards between the metal and my head, and continued to crush me beneath his foot. "Mohr," it said as I began to reach for gold pieces. I pulled out nearly twice as much as the previous set, about thirteen or so pieces, and watched carefully as the ridiculously fast skulls moved about for a trick—it was a con most likely, so there was some way of making the stone appear in one skull and not the other two.

As its hands began slowing down, I could've sworn I saw some little movement in them. I'd need to check it out next game.

The third round was a little over twenty gold pieces, the knife a few inches from my face, and no matter how fast the hands moved the skulls about, I kept my view on the hands. Little flickers of movement were occurring about every couple of swaps, and I knew I had the trick down.

When the three skulls faced me with empty eye sockets for the last time, and the three-headed creature asked me "Ver?" I said victoriously, "The left..." And before it could laugh, lift up the skull and say I was wrong, I lunged myself at the left hand, knocking his disgusting foot off from my back and grabbed the black stone from the palm. "Left _hand_, I meant to say." I picked up my gold and was about to stand up when, the thing grabbed the rusty knife and jumped at me, knocking me down and broke three of the glued chair's legs. My gold pieces flew out of my hands.

I tried getting this thing off of me and was going to equip my dagger and stab it, but I could do neither. All three of the heads spoke something different at the same time, and I could understand a few words here and there.

"Get...offa...me!" I said, trying my hardest to push it off but it weighed at least twice as much as Airai did. The best I could do was use my free arm to keep it from stabbing my eye out with the weapon.

I knew that there were at least eight players in the tavern, watching my struggle with this three-headed monster. Excluding the one or two that would be laughing at me and cheering for the thing, that left six people all with the ability to help me. But no one was doing anything but staring. _It's like I'm choking and no one wants to do the Heimlich on me... Ugh..._

Then I heard another voice besides from one of these three heads on top of me.

"Lightning!"

The spell shot three bolts of lightning from my left, one larger than the rest, knocking the creature from off my body. As for the chair, only the seat and small shards of the legs and backs remained, but it was easier to stand and move now.

The creature rose again from atop a collapsed table, charging at me with its knife. I pulled out my dagger and parried his, scraping some pieces of rust into the air. I jumped out of the way of one slash, my staff in my hand, and yelled at the creature.

"Fire!"

"Lightning!"

Both the flames and lightning engulfed the three-headed creature in flames, setting fire to the collapsed table. When another mage snapped out of her trance of staring, she used a water spell to extinguish the fire. Everyone else resumed their normal business in the tavern.

Sighing and putting away my weapons, I grabbed my gold strewn about the floor and took off the rest of the chair seat from my butt. I looked around the room for the other mage who cast the lightning, and saw someone leave the building. I ran after them, and after turning around the adjacent building, I knocked into the player.

"Sorry," I mumbled, looking up at the character. But I did a double take when I saw it was Chiu.

**FILE:007.5**  
.:chiu:.

I wasn't sure if what I was seeing was right, but this player looked almost like the Net idol one of my students, Chisame Hasegawa, double-lifed as.

Her outfit was entirely pastel pink and a semi-yellowish shade of white. She had on a long-sleeved white-ish top and a semi-long pastel pink skirt. The staff she used was about an arms-length white and pink one, with an outlined heart at the end. Her hair was a brown-orange shade, flowing down halfway to her back. A navy blue laptop floated besides her.

"Chisame?" I said in surprise. The player—who was just about to take off to another part of Agora Bazo—stopped and turned to look at me when she heard her name. Her face displayed a bit of shock.

"Erm...what d-did you say...?"

_That's definitely Chisame-san's voice,_ I thought. "Um, Chisame-san...?"

Her eyes widened, and I think after saying her name a second time, she recognized my voice. "Uh...Negi-Sensei...?" She asked, and I nodded. It might've been me, but I could've been sure that her face shown a bit of irritation. Sighing, she looked at my character and asked, "So, what are you supposed to be?"

"A mage. You?"

"A sorceress."

"Oh." I wasn't sure what the difference was, but I guess it didn't really matter too much. "So, you're the one that cast that spell in the tavern, right?"

"Yeah," She mumbled. "And don't call me 'Chisame'; I'm Chiu in this game. What's your name?"

"Airai," I said.

"Okay, so... Do you want to go to a dungeon or something...? I mean, I've heard rumor about this secret one, and I was going to see if it was there."

"Sure." Chiu started walking off towards the opposite side of town, and I followed. It was a bit of a quiet walk, but after a few minutes we arrived at an older part of the city. Some of the buildings were crumbling and others were just faded, but despite the looks, players still roamed around through the old shops and stuff.

"So... Where's the entrance to the dungeon?" I asked, looking around for something out of place and suspicious.

Chiu looked around. "The rumor is that the entrance is somewhere on one of the structures, but it was probably just some stupid information."

"It's worth looking around, right?" The sorceress shrugged, and I went about looking at the walls of the buildings for something. After about five or ten minutes—I lost track—I called Chiu over to come to where I was.

"I think I've found something." In the wall of an empty building besides the inn, I found a symbol etched into it. 'Δ' "It's the Greek letter Delta," I explained. _Why would this be here?_ I wondered to myself.

"Are you supposed to do something?" The sorceress asked me, a slight twinge of anticipation in her voice.

"Maybe you have to touch it..." With that said, I placed my hand on top of the Greek symbol, and it started glowing a faint blue. The wall slid forward and opened to reveal a dark stairway leading downwards.

Before walking down, I looked around to see if any other players were watching to see why two people were going through a wall. Luckily, no one was around; so I stepped down into the earth, hoping to get out of it alive.

.:.author's.:.note.:.

Chiu has made her appearance (finally). As for the chapter seven and a half, I didn't want to end the chapter with so little written, so I included that part. A secret-dungeon full of mysteries awaits. Mwuahaha.

_Hydriatus_ -- Is it clichéd to go about commenting on chapter lengths? Sheesh.

_Diablo200030002002_ -- I guess the idea you had in mind was different than mine.

_MasterSprtn_ -- Glad to hear to enjoy the story. I probably will switch between real life and in-game, but most will be in-game.

Hm...


	8. the labyrinth

**FILE:008  
**.:the labyrinth:.

There was something odd about this place.

For starters, it is a supposedly 'hidden' dungeon that's secretly underground the Agora Bazo city. Well, I wasn't sure if it was underground or not, but it sure felt that way. Next, it seemed way too gigantic for it to fit under the town. Chiu and I walked around for about ten minutes, getting lost nearly as soon as we entered. It was pitch black but luckily my student had a torch so we could see. But that made it feel even spookier.

What else could I say about it, hm...? Well, it changed in appearance every corner. It looked Grecian after climbing down but then the floor turned dirt and the walls rocky, then a bit later we were walking in a metallic tunnel. The floor turned stone again and the walls were narrowing down; Chiu and I had to walk one in front of the other to squeeze through.

There was something ominous about the room we just entered. Small torches faintly lit up the area of rusted metal and earthy floors. Bars were the main decoration, and the place reminded me of a ghost-infested prison. I really hoped it was anything _but_ ghosts...

"Where are we?" Chiu asked, looking around at the back of a cell we came out of. There were a good three floors extra above us, fading into blackness.

"I don't really know..."

As we walked, there felt something wrong about the place. First off, why was there something this big here; what was it used for, and, well, why was it empty?

All of a sudden, a shriek erupted somewhere to the left above us. It was ear-piercing and I couldn't help but cover my ears. "_DIE_!" The voice repeated, louder and way more closely than before.

Chiu and I looked around but only saw blackness inside the cells. A mist started from the cracks in the ground, adding to the spooky feel. The doors started banging, metal pinging off the walls and the torches grew brighter and softer in a melodic showcase. The voice repeated itself, and from my peripheral vision saw a giant blur run past the floor above us. I'd guess it was three or four meters tall with things jutting out from it's back. Next time I saw it, the creature was running towards us, and it was even more hideous as the flames engulfed it in light.

Its face and torso were that of a female, pretty ugly, I'd have to add, with pale skin, wild hair and evil eyes. Claws were holding two long swords with a green substance coating, falling to the floor and leaving a trail behind. From the waist down, it had something resembling a snake body that slithered towards us quickly. To top it off, wings protruded from the human-like half, serpent like and having a long wingspan.

"Gah," I sidestepped just in time as the thing lunged at me with its swords. Wand extended, I cast a 'fire' spell at the monster. Flames erupted and flew at it but its wings covered itself and took the blow. _No good..._ I thought leaping away again.

Off to the side, Chiu was casting spells of her own but to no avail. Even if it didn't look half as bad, it was fast and had tough skin.

"What...is...it?!" I managed to get out between dodges of attacks. Immediately, the sorceress summoned her laptop and aimed it at the back is if taking a picture. Or trying, at least.

The creature hissed as sparks of fire hit its torso and screamed out unintelligible words at me. Maybe three times did those swords with the weird green stuff come a hair away from my character; thank goodness I didn't touch it.

"Got it," Chisame said, jumping backwards of the thing's wings as they extended outwards, almost swatting her to the wall. Chiu's eyes scanned the screen which illuminated her face quickly enough that I had only the time to cast two more spells and evade three times as many attacks before getting struck by a hilt. My body flew back and collided against the floor, then did a kind of ninja jump back to my feet to be hit again. I hadn't realized it entirely, but I was being cornered into a cell. _What the heck is this thing?!_ I thought and said aloud.

Casting a thunderbolt and smacking the creature's back dead on, it faltered enough for me to charge past it. I hadn't been able to ask my question before Chiu said 'run'.

No bother arguing; I was ready to split out of here anyways. The creature was belting towards us, swaying a bit at first, but we lost it in the catacombs of the labyrinth. My real self couldn't help but pant.

"Thanks," I smiled, looking around again. Chiu muttered something about that little ordeal being my fault, but I ignored it. "Any...ways, what was it?"

"Not so sure. It's mostly in symbols but some of the parts are translated." She showed me the laptop, an old-fashioned picture of that creature took up a third of the screen. Beneath it read 'Καμπέ', saying details about this creature, what it does etcetera. Closing it before I finished reading, we began walking again.

Now, we were in another Greek-looking area, stained tiles cracked beneath our feet, showing the dirt under and a mosaic wall depicting gods stretched for a ways down. It made me feel like I was back in time.

As we came across a fork in the road, a sound emerged from behind us; a shrill wail. It sounded different than the one in the prison, but it still made me shudder. Quickly rotating around, I didn't see anything; the echo of the shriek drifting off the walls. "What was that!?" I exclaimed, feeling a bit shaky.

"I'm not sure..."

"Well, we could see what it was or continue heading down..." My eyes glanced at the walls and couldn't help but be befuddled. Moss was growing on the walls and tiles disappearing, light-colored sand began covering the floors. _We_ weren't going through different sections of the underground, but rather _it_ was changing constantly. _I don't think it will matter whether we go forward or back; it'll probably find us sooner or later._

Something in my brain was tugging at me to want to find out what was behind us, but something else said to run. Something else wanted to keep looking around this immense maze. My curiosity got to me.

"Where are you going?" The dark-orange haired sorceress asked, but when I gave her now response she grumbled and followed me.

The sandy walls fell apart as I moved my hand over it. The ground was losing its life. In maybe a minute or so, we came across a three-prong fork in the road. I didn't remember this being here, although who really knows. To the left, the dirt path continued down into the darkness. To the right, stones showed above the sand and seemed to conceal more shadows. Instinctively, I continued down the left path. A bit further down a bend and a corkscrew, light was at the end of the tunnel.

"Hey Chis- er, Chiu, I think we've found a way out."

As I got closer to the light, I had to shadow my eyes by habit; it was _really_ bright. And there in front of me was an infinite expanse of a desert. My character stood atop a high dune and overlooked all the sand. Far in the distance to my right was a small patch of greenery; an oasis. To the left were some unusual mounds of sand. Homes, perhaps? Either way, it would take forever to get to one of them.

Chiu emerged from the almost-invisible pathway beneath the sand. I think she let out a gasp.

"How the heck are we going to get all the way over there?" She said after a minute or two of looking around. It'd take us an hour at the least. The sorceress turned three-sixty to look at the ocean of sand around us. "Hey!" She exclaimed as I turned to look where she was. "I think I see something over there..."

Squinting my eyes to increase my vision—although it was probably to no use—I swore I saw something too. It was an unusual colored lump a lot closer than the village, but it still blended in with the surroundings.

Looking back at the almost covered exit we came out of, I asked, "Wanna go check it out?"

"S'not like we're going to get out any other way," she retorted, beginning her descent down the dune. Not arguing with her, I followed, being sure to look up and keep an eye on the mound.

It took a lot shorter than I thought as a sand storm rolled in. As Chiu and I climbed out of the ditch where an oasis lurked, there in front of us was the yellow-white object—although I wasn't expecting a gigantic _skull_. Double taking and staring at it for a while to make sure it did not move, blink, or conduct any other form of life, we descended down to the gaping mouth.

Inside wasn't that dark, patches of light coming from where the sand eroded the rocks above, spilling in like an hourglass. The two of us stepped down a flight of stairs not too far from the mouth, looking around. For the empty carcass of a dead creature, there wasn't anything that exciting about it. First, it was all sandy, and second, if this was a dungeon, there wasn't anything to it.

"So much for an adventure," I mumbled, walking through the only doorway about twenty or so meters from the entrance. The room was large in length and height. The stone-paved ground had etches of slashes and dents, stained with years of dried blood. There was a pile of bones beneath a hole, sprayed with sand and littered with coins. Half of the room was dark.

As I approached the pile cautiously, there was a rumbling sounding like fifty giant guard dogs growling at once. I looked around, a little bit of panic beating in my heart. My staff was drawn as I saw something lurking from the shadows. There seemed to be several dots of red, all staring at my character. Eyes; five pairs of bloodthirsty eyes. Bones cracked and the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard erupted. The growling continued again, louder than the first. Chiu just entered the room as a giant monster ten meters tall lunged at me with all five of its heads.

.:.author's.:.note.:.

Sorry 'bout the delay, but school gives out _way_ too much homework...


	9. hydra

**FILE:009  
**.:hydra:.

The hydra lunged at my character with its front-most heads, throwing me backwards like a toothpick. I hit the sandy stairs where we entered against my head, the loose dirt falling all over my body. My vision was blurred for a few seconds, simulating a real-life hit, but I could see the five drooling heads go after Chiu. She jumped backwards through the stone doorframe launching several spells and trying to get a monster analysis all the while not being hit.

As I got up, I flipped through my spell list for anything that can help us from dying any faster than we could before fleeing—assuming we even make it through any of this.

The non-offensive spells in my short arsenal were _Heal light_ and _Shield_. But before I closed the screen, I noticed a spell that wasn't there in the Underland;

_Magic Missile  
__--Attacks with magical energy (+1 missile per level)_

_Where'd I ge—oh!_ I remembered. After I leveled up from the gnawers, I must've gotten a new spell too. _Awesome_, I thought running the gap to my ally. "Shield!" A little icon above our heads resembling a silver-blue shield indicated that our armor stats went up.

"Gah!" Chiu nearly had her left arm bitten off from the side-head of the hydra.

They were all disgusting looking with black beady eyes that probably were a gateway to Hell if looked at for too long. Its skin had some color left in it, with several spots as gross as an old man's head and other where no skin covered the yellow-white bones and pale red muscles. Sickly spines went down the back of the necks and met at several large ones at the back which continued down to a large tail. The legs are big, still beefy with veins popping out and the claws sharpened from the stone beneath it. While I dodged two heads and Chiu the same, the middle-most would lunged at either of us, breaking our stance, playing with its meal.

Thank the gods I couldn't smell the mouths.

Only minutes passed by until my magic bar was nearly depleted from my constant offensive and defensive spells; I could only imagine the same was happening to the sorceress standing next to—

"_Ahh_!" Came the (surprisingly) shrill scream from my partner as one head knocked her over into the jaws of another. The entire hydra stopped toying with me, hunger in their eyes and mouths salivating as they onlooked their prey. . .which would not satisfy all five beings. The ones nearest me began snarling and biting at each other for a share, the same with the other three, as I finished off most of my magic on healing spells for her—one for me, of course. 'S not that she couldn't heal herself, but it was polite, say, when your party member is about to be eaten by a giant and very old creature who were fighting over which morsels of the body they'd get. . .yeah, _polite_.

But unfortunately, I forgot to stock up on food items, potions, etc. when I was in Agora Bazo; I didn't really have anything to quickly revive my magic bar or my health, so I was in trouble too. Pulling out my dagger, it seemed so wimpy compared to this being despite its simple design. If I'd throw it at the skin, it'd bounce off and might make _me_ lunch too.

Looking up, I felt my face turn cold as the body looked almost lifeless falling from the jaws of the hydra to the floor. For half a second, I was convinced it was actually my student, but snapped out of it, tip-toeing over to Chiu. "You okay?" I asked, shaking the shoulder so her face was upwards.

She took in a deep breath, let it out very slowly, and paused. Opening her eyes to complete the 'what-the-heck-do-you-think!?' look, she retorted; "Yeah, I was just being fought over by a giant five-headed freak monster as dinner, dangling around by the mouth and almost _died_." Emphasizing the last word, her sarcasm stung like daggers as I helped her up, listening to the stillness of the—wait, the _stillness_?!

Turning around with my mouth slightly agape like a fool, the puddle of drool and monster blood was beginning to accumulate beneath the hydra's feet, all ten eyes staring at us, mouths open wide enough to shovel down one of us whole.

I gulped.

"Wanna run for it?" I asked as they took an earthshaking step towards us through the sandy hallway, shaking the rocks all around. Nodding, we stood until the claws of the foot scratched the stones underneath, a metal-on-metal sound erupting, echoing. Half-paralyzed, we finally took the intitive and ran for it; the joystick was sure to break at any minute now.

The pounding few steps matched the distance of our many as the two of us flew up the stairs past an avalanche of sand.

That might've been a suicide stunt for us.

All around us for forever was a vast endless ocean of a desert, to which wasn't bad if you had time to explore for dungeons and pillage for treasures, but the growling, snarling, pounding sounds behind me kept my feet running, snailing up the dune. I dared not go back, not turn my head backwards. . .until I heard a burble of a blood-filled growl from the skull. Then I broke my code and looked over my shoulder.

Upon the neck of the middlemost head was a man with dirt brown hair and a simple suit of armor. Like a knife through butter, his large sword went through the neck, red liquid cascading down from the open wound as the head fell to the ground. He somersaulted backwards nearer the tail, allowing the closest two faces to head butt each other. Metal through skin, bone, muscle was quick and clean. Half the tail lopped with a growl of pain coming from the ancient monster. In less than a minute, the hydra had fallen to the hands of a single swordsman, cleaning his meter-and-a-half blade from the monster blood at the topmost spine atop the back.

My mouth was down at my feet, my eyes buggy, nothing coming out from my throat. I think Chiu was doing almost the same, slightly higher the hill than myself.

Sheathing the sword, the man looked at us as if we were never there, eyeing our ridiculous expressions. He smirked.

_How on earth could he. . .lop off all five heads so quickly. . .without obtaining a single scratch on his body?!_ Finally fixing my mouth, I walked towards the swordsman and stammered out a simple 'thanks'. Nodding, he rose an eyebrow which I understood as 'what were you guys doing in there? you could've gotten killed or something.'

"Well," I replied, pausing for a breath, "we found this labyrinth and ended up in this desert. We found that cave and next thing we knew we were being attacked by that creature." Pausing for a quiet laugh, he beckoned for us to follow.

The three of us walked for several minutes in silence—the man walking in front with the blade sheathes dangling behind and a pack tied to his belt; Chiu was silent, a little embarrassed at going through all _that_ when he took no time at all the dissect the monster, fuming at the thought, swearing a bit under her breath; and myself, gazing around idly at the surroundings, passing by seldom a palm tree, giant rock or an even _more_ exciting giant rock.

Finally, as we approached several trees in parallel lines, I saw numerous square-like buildings made of sandstone behind a large red-metal gate. It was risen, with Arabic-looking female warriors gazing at us and the few passersbys within the city. Something told me not to stare at them or, for some odd reason, shoot an arrow at them so I could sneak by. . not sure where that came from. . .

Stopping at a row of larger block buildings, the warrior nodded to the small sign with an archaic language scrawled over it. My guess was these were the inn and shops in all the desert.

"Thanks," I said, smiling and glancing around at a white-clad lady standing at the far end holding the reigns of a large red-brown stallion. She seemed to be waiting for someone; the other native persons pretty much wore purple puffy pants and a skimpy half-shirt, orange hair tied back and a scimitar hoisted at their waists. There were multiple buildings stacked upon each other, hidden amongst the rocks, some watch-women and others acted like pedestrians. "Oh," I said, halting the swordsman who was leaving once I'd lost his attention. "I'd forgotten to ask you what your name was."

His expressionless brown eyes and hair of his face contrasted the faded grey-blue armor he wore with the X-crossed swords strapped to his hip, one larger than the other. "Rimuel." Nodding at me, I replied, 'Airai'. His body language thereafter said; 'okay. I guess you'll need help getting out of this desert if you don't even know how you got in. but if I'd you, I'd stock up on items and eat to regain your health and magic bars. hurry up—I'll be waiting at the bridge.' Or, something along those lines.

"'K," and he walked off down the stairs to the opposite exit. I realized I'd lost sight of Chiu, but since we were in a party I switched the chat mode to communicate with her (Zephyr taught me how to do that last dungeon). "Hey, when you're done getting your stuff, head to the bridge and Rimuel'll help us out."

There was a small 'eep' as unexpected from hearing my voice, but she replied with a 'whatever' and cut off the connection.

Sighing, I looked around for an item store firstly, found a pathetic picture of fruits in a bowl with some words underneath, and entered. It was somewhat busy, several food items and bottles of colored liquid covered the shelves. I bought some apples, breads, rice for my health—the latter I ate to restore my health from nearly zero—and a couple of bottles of milk that would 'recover six hearts per serving'. Next came a potion store where I bought two blue potions to recover magic, one I drank to heal myself. And now came the weapon, armor, and bazaar shops.

The first sold a variety of blades, pole arms, bows, staffs. . .I could go on and on. Being a wizard, I checked out the wands which were ridiculously priced. _Maybe not..._ I glanced at the other weapons for fun and looked over the blades. Some were intricately designed, others simple and powerful. I spotted a steel dagger stronger and a bit more eye-catching than my starter one, and sold for only thirty gold pieces. As I went to the owner to buy it, she laughed after eyeing myself and reluctantly took the gold. Embarrassed, I left in a hurry to the armor shop.

Here wasn't anything as grand as the previous, but it got the job done selling equipment and defensive protection. Most were for either girls or heavy swordsmen, and the rest I wasn't sure of so I left. Last was the bazaar, offering a variety of oddities and paraphernalia. I wasn't sure I'd wanted to spend any money on monkey paws, spider eyeballs, or whatever else was in those jars.

Finishing my shopping, I headed to the bridge down the lowest part of the village were I met both characters. Here was a bridge with the middle put simply together after being broken. Red rocks surrounded us and stood tall as pillars, also providing support for the cascading waterfall going beneath the planks, flowing down farther off into the distance.

We crossed, walked through a sandy maze of caves and finally saw grass again. The wind blew through and birds chirped in the trees, I kind of missed the sound. . .even if it _was_ a game.

As we went down dirt paths up and over hills, we came across several monsters, such as; a giant pineapple-looking creature with dangerous blades as it hovered, spewing out little clones of it; skeletal warriors with nothing but pure-white bone, fingers sharp claws and eyes empty sockets; ghosts that seemed to wander away from you then appear and attack you with its lamp, its deformed body covered in shawls.

After a while, I heard a faint sound of music coming from the wind, and thereto—over the hill came a castled-town, drawbridge down over a moat and blackened torch-holders unlit, the only decoration upon the slate-colored stones.

"Look, a city!" I said, receiving two 'no duh, Sherlock' glances from Chiu and Rimuel, but it was a spur of the moment kind of thing.

We entered, passing by two simple guards clad in armor and spears at the gates, passing by a few buildings until entering the town square where everyone was acting joyful, dancing, playing with their puppies, children running about and stalls selling fresh fruits and veggies. A large castle stood far in the distance in a straight line from the entrance.

Rimuel tapped my shoulder and gave a simple wave. "Wait, you're going already." He shrugged and looked to his side; 'I've got better things to do. besides, 's not like I need to baby-sit you guys. just head on over to the inn and you can heal up and take a rest from the game. well, see ya.' Once again, I may have misinterpreted it, but I think it was pretty close. "Well, see ya," and he left the town.

"Let's head to the—" and Chiu left again. Sighing, I searched for the inn, declining offers to buys foods and random masks, and paid the gold for a bed. When I got there, the dungeon selection screen popped up and there came a third-person view of my character lying stiffly in the bed. I sighed after the long day, and quit the screen, letting the game power off. Taking a minute before taking the goggles off, I allowed real-world sounds to penetrate my eardrums again; real birds, real students chatting about nonsense, the real bell ringing the coming of a new hour. And I took the game off, blinded by the light of a spring morning.


	10. shopping

**FILE:010  
**.:shopping:.

The sun burned the pupils of the ten-year-old boy as he took the video game from his eyes. The clock tower's bells rang, giving a background harmony to the chirping of birds and the chattering of school children. Standing up to stretch his legs, the feeling of ants crawling all around inside his flesh made him jump a bit. Before packing away his belongings in the bag he brought, Negi yawned for ten seconds straight.

He headed down the flight of stairs of the World Tree, some students laughing quietly [probably at him] but the red-haired boy was mostly concerned about sleeping, now that he thought about it. _How long was I –yawn- playing for?_ Pulling out the semi-outdated cell phone from his pocket, he flipped it open. In blue letters across the top of the screen, it read _8:46_. "Wow...I was on _Monsters and Mayhem_ for over two and a half hours." He paused. "Cool."

Taking a slow stroll, he looked around at a change in the campus. It was Saturday and it was spring. Students walked around casually, not having to worry about school for a while. He looked over at the greenery, the budding plants and trees, the birds, and everything and smiled. Then yawned again.

As Negi climbed the stairs of the dormitory, he felt his lack of sleep gaining on him. He yawned as he reached his floor, walked down the never-quiet hall to his room, and opened the door.

"Ah, Negi-Kun, there you are," Konoka said cheerfully as she exited the kitchen area, apron around her waist and hands full with a large bowl off eggs and two plates of bacon and buttered toast. "You're just in time for breakfast. If you came in a bit later, Asuna would've eaten it all up." She smiled and trotted to the table, placing the plates in the center. The orange-haired Asuna looked over her shoulder and glared at Konoka, face still groggy; she likely woke up only after smelling food being cooked.

The ten-year-old's stomach growled as he looked upon the meal with voracious eyes. Those Pop-Tarts didn't exactly fill him up, and neither did those virtual potions, apples, breads… He was fatigued _and_ starved.

In a new record of five minutes, all plates were clean and empty and Negi help Konoka bring them to the sink. "That was very delicious, Konoka-San," He said smiling, which made her smile.

"Thanks, I did my—" The brown-haired teen abrupted her sentence and went on a new train of thought. With dishware still in hand, she peeped out the kitchen archway into the living area. "Oh, Asuna?" Pulling on a clean shirt, the other female answered back with a 'mmf?' "Asuna, do you still want to go to the shopping district? You actually got up early today, so…?"

With a tug at her pajama bottoms, Asuna looked up and replied, "I guess, sure, it's only the first day of our—" She paused, letting out a small burp which she [actually] covered with her hand. "—spring break." She finished, grabbing a pair of jeans from her dresser.

Smiling, Konoka gave out a small 'yay', retreating her head back into the kitchen and placing the still dirty plates upon the counter. "Oh, and Negi-Kun?" She asked. The red-haired boy looked up with a soapy sponge in hand. "You don't mind coming with us, do you?"

In the kitchen cleaning the egg bowl, Negi paused and looked over at Konoka. He remembered going shopping with her before, which was fun, but with Asuna in the picture, it might be more, well, hectic. It was either this or sleep—which he _desperately _needed. But he remembered Asuna saying she saw 'Monsters and Mayhem' at the district yesterday, so maybe.

Sighing, he gave an exasperated smile. "Sure…"

.::.::.::.::.::.

The midmorning enthusiasm was high in the shopping district nearby the Mahora Academy campus. Students in groups of friends walked around together, eating variety of vendor snacks, giggling at jokes, pointing at window items and having a good time without school on their minds. The majority of people walking through the pedestrian streets were females, however males weren't entirely extinct. Near a female clothing boutique, a small red-head boy was glazing about outside the door. He watched people pass by, waiting for Konoka and Asuna to finish sight-seeing clothes.

Afterwards, the threesome moved down, buying small bowls of Italian ice cream, walking fifteen meters before the brown-haired teenager spotted something cute and dragged the party into another girly store. Negi ate his dessert, idly looking at the shirts and skirts before the pair moved to undergarments. A slight tinge of red began forming on his cheeks, but he knew then he should wait outside.

"Mmm, delicious." He said, licking the last bit off of the translucent, shovel-shaped spoon, throwing the trash in a nearby bin. Negi glanced at the stores, half of them for girls, a couple of food shops, one chock-full of tradition Japanese goodies, the one next door containing Western icons like Snoopy and Mickey. Further down the aisle stood a group of teen boys with blue plastic bags in box-ular shapes. Then he saw it—a familiar accessory one of the kids pulled out of the bag, adjusting the head strap and slinging them to his eyes. Negi's heartbeat rose. "A video game store!" He exclaimed, grinning. "And they're selling _Monsters and Mayhem_ sets, too." The ten-year-old was about to rush over there, forgetting about his roommates looking at feminine clothing, before he went head-first into a cardboard sign at several kilometers an hour.

"Yo, Negi!" A familiar voice called. The boy rubbed his head and lifted his body from the broken sign advertising curry—apologizing to the manager of the stall—and turned to smile at his friend.

"Hi there, Kotaro-Kun." Negi said, rubbing the bruise forming beneath his crimson hair. "Did you really have to push me into the sign…?"

His spiky black hair fromped as he jogged the short distance to his Western friend. "Heh heh, sorry 'bout that. Didn't mean to, but, yeah." Kotaro gave a genuine smile, adjusting his black jacket's collar. "So, what'cha doing here?"

"Ah well, I was shopping around with Asuna-San and Konoka-San. They are kind of looking at girly things, so I was waiting for 'em to finish. Then _you_ came around and hit me." He smiled, then noticed over his friend's shoulder that his roommates were done with their latest store. Konoka held a small striped bag with the store's name, meaning they _finally_ decided on something to buy after half an hour; the ten-year-old would never understand a girl's shopping traits.

Kotaro followed Negi's gaze and saw the two girls heading their direction, talking to each other on the way.

"Hello Kotaro-Kun," Konoka said, smiling.

"Hey Kotaro," Asuna repeated. The two of them wore comfy shirts and skirts with sandals, bracelets adorning their wrists and cell phone chains hanging out of their skirt pockets. The day was warm and beautiful for early spring.

Before any lengthy conversation could pop up, the group of boys with the blue bags walked down the street, chatting about video games. Negi noticed them and immediately remembered about the store. "Oh, erm, Konoka-San?"

Her brown hair swayed as a slight breeze began to pick up, but died thereafter. "Hm? What is it, Negi-Kun?" She smiled.

"Erm, I was wondering if I could head over to this one store. You know, to—"

"Just go if you wanna," Asuna said, interrupting her teacher's sentence rudely. She adjusted her bracelets, "We can't keep draggin' you around to clothes stores and stuff—it's not really manly..." The multicolored eyes glanced over to the black-haired teenager slouching. "And take dog boy with you, too."

His face lit up. "Thanks, Asuna-San. I'll see you later, then." Negi turned to Kotaro as the two girls went around them, talking about what girls talk and looking at what girls look at. "Hey, Kotaro-Kun, I wanted to check out this video game store down there." He pointed with a gesture of his head. "Want to join with?"

The half-dog half-boy shrugged. "Why not? There aren't many guy stores 'ere anyways." He paused, grinning. "Race ya?"

And they did. It took only a few seconds for them to run fifteen meters, causing almost ten casualties not including the fact they _both_ ran into one another, crashing into the cardboard sign advertising the new _War_-something game.

This manager nearly had a heart attack. He was yelling, face an un-human red with a large physique. He wore glasses, too, complaining that was one of the only three signs he had of that game, and thank the gods it wasn't completely obliterated. After the remains of the cardboard was scooped up and cradled back inside, the two boys looked at each other and laughed. Neither had paper cuts or injuries, though, and some walkers looked at them as if they belonged in a psycho ward. They continued laughing.

The store's interior was bright, gaining much light from the large wall-to-floor windows and with the fluorescent lighting above. The room was about five meters by ten, maybe, with racks lining almost every wall. Upon them were video games for every console, new and old and used. Stand-alone racks stood in several spots, along with a clearance bin and demo contraptions for the _Play Station 2_ [or was it the third?] and _Wii_. The cashier stand was in the right of the room, consoles and some other stuff behind a locked glass case. The manager was in the back room caring for the sign the two had broken.

"Damn," Kotaro couldn't help but saying. There were hundreds upon hundreds of video games and stuff in one room. "If I was a nerd, I'd've thought I died and gone t' heaven." He grinned, and looked at some game boxes that looked promising—they had some warriors on it with large weapons or one with a man in ripped kung-fu garb striking a fighting pose.

If Negi had enough money, he would buy all the consoles and so many games, but whatever he had and whatever he got paid couldn't be wasted so quickly. He sighed in sadness, but at least he had _Monsters and Mayhem_. Speaking of...

There, in the back half of the room near the clearance bin and besides the _Wii_ section stood a stand-alone rack half filled with similar white-black boxes. The red-haired child couldn't help but smile from one end to the other in complete nerd-happiness; and the bifocals didn't help either.

He glanced through the merchandise, seeing: starter sets similar to the one he got, extra gloves in case of damage or wrong hand usage, addition chips that can add additional features to your already existing system—as it read on the card—and blank cards 6cm by 15cm. At first, Negi was confused. Then he got it. _Oh, so if you want multiple characters you can buy a blank card to make another._ His mind was thinking of the possibilities, then the price; his hand went over to the slim wallet in his cargo pant pocket.

"Oy, watcha looking at?" Kotaro came up to him, hands unusually empty. "What's that? _Monsters and Mayhem_? Is it any good, y' know?"

"Oh, hey Kotaro-Kun." Negi put the blank card in excessive plastic packaging back on the rack. "Yeah, this game is _really_ cool, and not just nerdy cool, either. You can—"

"I've seen that before, I think."

"Huh?" The ten-year-old was unsure what he was rambling about. "But you've never been in this store, have you?"

"Naw," The older teenager replied. "But I _know_ I've seen that box somewhere'..." He squinted his black eyes, thinking. "Oh yeah! Ayaka-Nechan's got it. I think her dad gave it to her or something but she's never used it—just collecting dust in the closet. Is it any good?"

"_Is it_?" Negi asked as if Kotaro didn't know the sky was blue or grass grew green not yellow. And as they walked out of the store—the manager glaring at the two to make sure they don't break anything else—Negi told his friend all about the game.

They reached the outskirt of the shopping district by the time he was done explaining, and it seems Kotaro was beginning to get sucked in. "That's pretty sweet, you get to beat stuff up like that." His friend nodded in agreement. "But the thing is..."

"What?"

"Well, you know how Ayaka-Nechan and I get along. Yeah, I don't really think she's gonna let me go an' steal something." He gave out a sad sigh, then all of a sudden lit up. "Wait! Unless _you_ get her to give it to you!"

"Uwah! Why me, Kotaro-Kun?!"

He smiled, his canine teeth showing. "'Cause she's _so_ crazy when she sees you and there'd be no way she'd _ever_ say no to ya." Seeing slight disbelief in his friend, Kotaro tried a different approach. "I mean, I'd _love_ t' play, but seeing how we're kinda slum-broke—well, I am at least—I don't think we should buy one when I could..._borrow_ one. Just for a while, y' know."

"Erm...I _guess_." Negi replied.

.::.::.::.::.::.

The silver-haired wizard stood in the plaza nearby the bazaar. His dark-blue eyes looked at the other characters, their weapons and their clothing. He watched the NPCs stroll by almost undistinguishable except for the fact they weren't as cool looking. After what felt like ten minutes, he saw a figure appear, pixel by pixel, besides the ancient water fountain. Without any formalities, this wizard felt he knew exactly whom it was.

The new character appeared with bed-head black hair, some streaks of brown and blonde here and there, wearing completely _MMORPG_-looking attire: a black beanie adorning his colored hair that had two gold stripes running its lengths, complementing a sleeveless black martial arts top. A belt of what looked like rope held up balloon-style pants which were wrapped with athlete's tape at the shins, down onto the open-toed shoes. His marking was a tear-path shaped scar beneath the left eye down to the cheek. The character had other ninja-like accessories, with an unusual looking weapon sheathed at his waist and a bulging pack on the lower back.

The silver-haired character smiled. "So is that you, Kotaro-Kun?"

At first, the martial-arts character was looking around the city, taking in all that is _Monsters and Mayhem_. He then noticed the person in front of him and frowned, then scowled, gave a blank expression and finally figured out how to smile. And he smiled.

"Whoa, this is really cool. Hey, is that you Negi? You look weirder than you told me..." He continued smiling.

"Look who is talking, ninja-man." He smiled too. "So, you like _Monsters and Mayhem_?"

"So far, yeah, but I can't wait to start kicking monster butt." He punched his palm as if ready to thwack something.

"So, what's your name Kotaro?"

"It's not that great, just Kei. Don't ask though."

"And your class?"

"A thief! Wouldn't it be cool to go around kicking people's butt_ and_ stealing their stuff; and of course kicking their butts?!" They both laughed.

The rouge's pitch-black eyes lit up, face displaying an emotion of extreme happiness, grinning likewise. A small artificial wind blew by as he nicked his nose with his thumb. "So, _Airai_, where to?"

.::.::.::.::.::.

Author's Note: Super sorry for the really late update; I completely blame school and procrastination.


	11. kei

**FILE:011  
**.:kei:.

The screen began to seamlessly fade into the dungeon that Kotaro—erm, I mean _Kei_—picked. The landscape grew beneath my feet, colors on the goggles changing from pixel to pixel to revel an unknown territory built with such awesome graphics.

I looked around, face wanting to sweat at the surroundings even though it wasn't actually hot. It could be classified as a barren wasteland, what with rocks and lava everywhere, but there was more to a dungeon than emptiness: from instance, a city or town had to be nearby, treasures and monsters would be roaming about, and there could be the possibility of leveling up!

"Whoa, damn!" I heard a familiar voice say to my right. I saw the gaping Ko—_Kei_, taking in his first dungeon. "Well, there's not actually anythin' _here_, but the graphics..." He smiled at me, black hair caressing his face.

"Well, Kot—gah!, I mean _Kei_," I stuttered, kept on forgetting to call him by his username instead of his real name. "Well, Kei, at least your first dungeon was cooler than mine—I had to start off in pitch-black caves." I made my character, Airai, pout, as if I would—which I was. "But trust me, there's sure to be a whole load of monsters we can beat and level up on. Oh! And there's things called q—"

"Yo, Negi—! If there's butt-kicking, then there's butt-kicking. And leveling up makes us stronger, so what else _could_ there be?" He gave me an impatient smile and began journeying around. "So com'on—monsters aren't gonna beat 'emselves!"

I sighed. _Impatient Kotoro-Kun. But quests and treasures are just as fun…_

Over lava rivers, beneath rock arches and evading stalactites falling from a bottomless black ceiling. We lost the butt-kicking-race to other player characters who got to them first. Kotaro was jealous that he couldn't be the one beating them up—and he was just about to steal a kill from a female wizard—but I told him there'd be other monsters up ahead.

And I was right.

"Look'it there!" Kotaro ran over a few rocks to a pair of monsters about fifty meters away. They looked like the typical fantasy video game monster stereotypes: two humanoid demons with discolored skin and hair with pointed set of incisors and pointed ears wearing odd garb, one carrying an extremely long halberd and the other a pair of thin curved short swords.

The thief-character stopped and turn to my character, allowing myself to catch up the short distance before asking; "Erm, by the way, how'd you attack?"

I felt like face-palming myself but decided not to. "Well, you've got those gloves on, right?" The frumpy black hair nodded. "Okay, well I believe that when a monster is nearby or something, your weapon automatically comes out. So by moving your hands as if you were using the weapons, you can fight. Those gloves you are wearing have sensors that make the game seem crazy-real."

Kei looked at his hands like they were magical, then turned to look back over at the monsters. "Awesome. Let's go!" And with that he took off again, myself following shortly behind. That's when I figured what his weapons were.

They were a pair of elongated triangular blades attached to an H-shaped metal handle. There was a zigzag pattern of gray and red on both sides of the blade and the handle had a hand protector to keep the weapon from twirling back onto the backside of the hand. The total length was maybe forty-five centimeters or so. I didn't know what it was called but it looked pretty cool.

"H'ya!" With a lunge at the backside of one of the monsters, Kei's blade made a clean cut that seemed to have gone through the lower torso. The second monster—the one with the large spear—noticed and was ready to counterstrike before I shot a _Fire_ spell, knocking him backwards a few meters. It was a two-on-two and I was sure we were going to win. The sword monster armed itself and slashed at Kei's neck, but missed. A trail of blood was coming from his stomach but it didn't faze him one bit.

My opponent thrust his polearm at me and would've pierced my clothing had I not jumped to the side in time, using my wooden staff to block the shaft of his spear. _Let's see if I remember that name…_ I thought before thrusting my palm half a meter from its face.

"_Magic Missile!_" Three missile-like projectiles of colorless energy flew from my body and out of my hand, coming in direct contact with the nose and eyes of the humanoid. With a ranged attack at such a close distance, the head exploded—not exactly but it's the closest description of it anyways. The decapitated body fell but disappeared before it touched the ground, leaving a head-size pouch in its place. After picking it up, I was rewarded with 25 Gold and a Used Spear.

"That...was...awesome!" I looked over to see a ginning, black-clad thief putting his dagger-like weapons away. "We _need_ to find more monsters."

.::.::.::.::.::.

The two of us fought for maybe half-an-hour—time always escapes reality in this game so I'm not sure how long we were kicking monster butt. We came across other monsters similar to the demons we fought first, then a band other humanoids specialized in a repertoire of weapons, even a gun-user. There were other wizards and fantasy monsters we lost track around twenty. But my supply of healing items was depleting and I had spotted a castle over the hill so we'd stock up.

"Didn't think we'd level up so fast, Kotaro." I reached three, he two, and we would be one more ahead if not the item problem. "We should stock on plenty of items so we can fight for at least another hour, huh?"

"Hell yeah," Kotaro said, still grinning since the first battle. I found out the weapons he used were called katar, or punching daggers, and was one of the thief's random start-off weapons. They were pretty nifty though.

The town—technically castle-town—was large. It was gothic styled with real and statue gargoyles on buildings and stairs. The streets were paved with chipped and blood-stained rocks and the townsfolk were just as crazy as the monsters we fought. There were humans and half-humans and creatures and monsters and everything. Further in, in the heart of the town, was the shopping plaza with stalls selling weapons, armor, items, potions, random necessities and ripped-off limbs. Everything.

We stocked up on potions and normal staple foods like breads and fruits instead of the mystery stews and stuff, then gawked at the man-stuff: the variety of weapons was outstanding with people trading and selling so often there was almost an unlimited amount of gear you could buy.

But to disappointment, neither of us bought any—guess we were traditional level uppers and not item-buyers.

We were heading down a different street when a pair of dark-blue colored penguins blocked our path. We turned to go the way we came but were blocked by three more penguins, one a violet color. They looked evil with their stocky feet and wings, empty eyes except what seemed to be the leader.

"Never seen you before here, Dood." The purple one said. Simultaneously, four drew out serrated knifes and one came up with a bomb in either hand. They were short penguins but they meant business.

"Attack! Dood!" And they charged…but,…they weren't really any threat. Kei and I stood back to back, him facing the leader while I got the one with the bombs. A simple fire spell set one with daggers flying down half the street. I did the same with the other—careful not to explode the bombs—and turned to help out Kei. But there wasn't any need. The blue penguins were down and the purple one came charging like a novice swordsman testing out his poor abilities. Without any effort, the thief put away his weapons and grabbed hold under the flippers, picking up and tossing the penguin further than the others.

But as it fell upon a bystander, it exploded.

Neither of us saw that coming, but it was pretty cool—exploded penguins. We grinned at each other, and began to head out towards the outskirts until a yell came from behind.

"Who the hell dares to throw one of those accursed prinnies at the great overlord of the Netherlands!?" My feet quickly spun around to see a short blue-haired boy kneeling against a building, fire in his eyes. He was wearing black-smudged red shorts and scarf—dirtied from the penguin's explosion. He was short, yes, but the broadsword he carried reminded me of an angered Asuna—or maybe worse...

.:author's:note:.

Finals are coming up, then summer...but there's still finals...

_Kintatsu_ – Wow, you got all the references right. :D Hm, maybe I should make them more obscure.

_[EDIT: I've added a picture at my site [look to my profile for link].]_


	12. laharl

**FILE:012  
**.:laharl:.

He stood twenty-or so centimeters shorter than my character, with royal blue hair that made two long antennae falling down his back. He was shirtless but donned a blood-red scarf and shorts. What got my attention the most was his bastard sword—which, surprisingly, he was able to wield in one hand.

"Which one of you threw that damn prinny at me?!" He barked, his voice not all that mature, complementing his size.

The two of us glances at each other, and I knew that behind the virtual reality goggles Kotaro was probably laughing. Truthfully, I myself was smirking also at this little kid with a hot-tempered attitude, so I was glad this game didn't display what your face actually looks like.

"I'll say it again," The blue-haired boy said again, adjusting his sword. "Which one of you—"

"Me," Kei said, allowing a smile to take its place. With dagger-eyes the short kid stared at my friend, aiming the weapon in his direction. Then, he smirked, too.

Lunging at Kotaro, the newcomer swung his sword with intent of dislodging Kei's head. Instead, Kei pulled out his blades, parried with one and spun the bastard sword around while lunging with his second weapon. However his opponent jumped back, freeing his sword. Barrel rolling to the left, the blue-haired kid thrust with his weapon.

Eventually it became redundant—neither was going to land a hit.

I grabbed hold of my staff, reminding myself of my short array of spells, and held out my hand. Waiting for the chance when Kei's foe would have his back towards me, I stood. Then, right as Kei jumped a low attack to his feet, I struck—"Magic missle!"

Three concentrated balls of light colored magic energy flew out of my palm and connecting with its intended target. I smirked. During the momentary lapse of bewilderment, Kei struck with the hilt of his katar in the small of the child's back. Sure we had won, I sheathed my staff—which is technically impossible since it doesn't have a sheath—and gave a thumbs up to Kei who did the same. "That wasn't too hard," I stated, scratching the white-silver hair on my head.

"Psh, that wasn't anythin'!" Kei retorted, already heading back to the outskirts of town. The blue penguins, 'prinnies', still lay dazed on the dirt. "Now let's go beat up some more monsters." I began to follow, trying not to step on the prinnies on my way out, when I heard s scuttle behind me. Turning, I was barely able to see the butt of the sword handle before I was thrown back into my friend, knocking us both down on top of an unconscious penguin.

"You two think you can defeat me, _me_, lord of the Netherlands?! I, Laharl, will never be defeated by any one, not even you two peasants!"

Our weapons were barely out by the time he struck again, whacking us both with the flat of his blade in our sides. I had to keep an eye on him while I backed up a few meters away in order to use the full advantage of distance with my spells. I check my status bars, having lost only scant magic and no more than a fifth of my health. Whoever this Laharl was, he was strong.

"Magic missle!" I cast, then darted over my right in an arc and cast again. "Fire!" Once again, I sidestepped around the brunt of the battle between Kei and Laharl and used 'Fire' again. My technique set me over half a circle around the so-called Netherlands Lord, and the two in front of me were doing what seemed like a dance of dodging, parrying, and slashing. My spells hit twice, the first around the calves of Laharl and the second straight at the back of his head, singeing the ends of his blue hair.

Kei, on the other hand, was doing his fair share of attacking and weakening our opponent, however it seems that no matter how many hits he takes Laharl wouldn't go down. I was able to whack the head of my staff against his arm or neck when he had the upper hand, then use magic in addition to Kei's strikes to chip off more of the blue-haired kid's health, though I began to wonder or not if he even had any health. Ourselves, on the other hand, were beginning to wear down, our status nearing halfway and my magic spells wouldn't last forever.

Who was Laharl anyways?

"Hey, prince!" Some female said to the left of me, and even though I didn't pay attention to it, rearing to cast off another magic missile at him and a cure at Kei, the 'prince' jumped back from Kei's strike and looked at the voice.

"What do you want, Etna?" He barked, lowering his bastard sword. Kei did likewise, and all three of us lost interest in the battle. Our fight led us back down the street towards the center of the town, leaving the prinnies twenty meters down and a small trail of destruction in our wake. None of the townspeople bothered to care about our duel as if it happened everyday—which it probably did.

The girl was taller than me by a few centimeters, very lanky and hardly wearing anything if you could call her clothes clothes. However, her chest was as flat as mine—and I'm a boy. Her hair was a color of blood mixed with purple, her face happy and devious. I hadn't noticed at first, but she had these teeny tiny wings along with a devil's tail.

And speaking of teeny wings, I didn't even notice the ones on Laharl's back either, half-covered by his scarf and standing out against his light skin.

The female, Etna, responding, "Oh, nothing really prince. But there's something you should probably know and what I should tell you." She snickered, showing a small pair of fangs as she walked closer.

"Etna! What is it?!" I swear I could see a spark replacing his pupils.

Etna paused, putting her weight on her left leg and hand on her waist. "Oh, nothing, really."

"Etna!"

"Fine, fine." She sighed, still looking mischievous. "Y'see, one of the Prinny Squad spotted a group of demons and monsters heading here, and from what he said they're going to try and overthrow you, prince."

Silence.

"What!? Why the hell would those low-life creatures bother to try and overthrow me, Laharl, Prince of the Netherlands!? Agh, I'll go and kill them all myself."

Before she let him walk off in an aura of distaste, she retorted, "So Laharl's going to take on _hundreds_ of demons by himself then?" He gave no answer. "Fine then, but when you don't come back I'll gladly take your place in the castle. And all the prinnies can have a party in your room, since you'd be dead. Then I'd let anyone come and go and—"

"Fine!" He finally broke. Laharl turned around, blazes completely taking over his eyes. Then he stared at the two of us, who were bystanders in the little argument, an idea coming to his head. "You two!" He barked. "I don't know who you're are, but you'll come and fight with me. Now." Then he looked at Etna. "You've got your damn Prinny Squad coming with me or not?"

She shrugged. "Only a couple got off their asses—the others are watching the T.V. in your room and sleeping and stuff."

Laharl suppressed a growl, and muttered "fine." He stared at us then headed over to the opposite side of the town. The glint of his bastard sword against a hanging torch made me glance over at Kei. We both raised our eyebrows and agreed telepathically to follow. We figured killing hordes of monsters and leveling up while trying to help out Laharl wouldn't be too bad.

I mean, I could level up and learn new spells.

-author's-note-

Terribly sorry for a short but late update. First half of June was really busy and the last half was kinda lazy…

_Kojiro Kun_ – Heh, I don't know if I can get the prinnies to be hireable, but they'll be exploding a lot in the next chapter :D

[Just posted a picture, by the way.]


	13. slaughter

**FILE:013  
**.:slaughter:.

In all honesty, there were way too many monsters marching at us like trained soldiers, no more than what seemed like half a kilometer away. The stomping, slithering, growling and screeching sounded like five broken Goth songs playing at once, the sounds traveling all across this land—though I wasn't sure where exactly. Looking to my right and left, a total of maybe thirty comrades showed up including myself, Kei, other warriors and ten prinnies. The blue penguins stood there dumbfounded, forced to fight even though I wasn't sure they could actually do anything. _This might be a problem_, I thought, inspecting my staff and allowing the monster sounds to invade my ears.

The short, blue-haired Laharl—who happens to be the overlord of the wasteland-like Netherworld—paced impatiently at the front, striding up and down the line of warriors while slashing his bastard sword at any weed or bug beneath him. Earlier when we fought, he seemed like a force to be reckoned with; against an entire horde of monsters would be like a hundreds of him charging at us.

My knees felt shaky—I wasn't sure if they were my own in real life or Airai's—but I had a feeling this wouldn't be too bad. It was just a game, and all these monsters were like the ones we fought before—easy and two-hit kills. _Unless they happen to be similar to those giant rats_... Shaking my head, I prepared and cast two _Shield_ spells, one on me and the other on Kei.

_THUMP. THUMP. THUMP._ I swore their marching was in surround sound. I looked at the ground they've covered—half the distance in no more than a minute. That made me a bit more nervous, but I shook it off.

"Kill the whole lot of 'em," Laharl said with a monstrous flare in his eyes as he fixed his gaze on the incoming army. "Like hell are monsters gonna destroy _my_ castle!"

Kei and I looked at each other for a second, and I knew that Kotaro behind his character's grin was grinning five times as happy, prepared to rip out throats and dismember all the monsters out there.

"Ready?" I asked.

"Hell yeah," He responded, readying his katars.

And with that, Laharl made the first run yelling something like "kick…ass…"

All thirty-something of us charged ahead the fifty meters to reach the front line of monsters. And let me say this: they were horrid looking. Really. Bits of flesh left exposed muscle and bone. Others had horns protruding from everywhere; some had tattoos across every centimeter of skin. Their jaws consisted of two to forty yellow-stained teeth, all sharp or broken. Hundreds upon hundreds of deep-set red eyes looked at us, all with one line in their head: kill. Some monsters were buff with incredibly large bone-and-metal weapons; others were skinnier than twigs and carried misshapen staffs. Some were people-animal hybrids, others were mutants of children's imaginations.

In other words, they were one-hundred percent clichéd video game monsters: and they were being slaughtered.

My mouth exploded in a list of spells, barraging them all in groups of three and four. Blood spurted out after every and any hit, while the dirt ground beneath our feet was littered with at least one hundred-fifty bodies painted with crimson. As far as I could tell no more than two of our ranks fell, and I could still spot Kei out of my peripheral slaying monsters in twos. Laharl was cleaving heads off of whatever got in his way, his chest and pants stained with monster blood. The prinnies ganged up in two groups of five, unleashing sword slashes, bombs, and acrobatic moves that destroyed—or blew up—the enemies. And no more than a few minutes past.

As we continued heading down the ranks of monsters, lines fell and littered the ground around and behind us with corpses and dismembered limbs, heads, and whatnot. It was extremely busy; after clearing the enemies ahead of me I had a small window of opportunity to cast healing spells or eat recovery foods before another barge interrupted my vision. But I wasn't complaining—these monsters were hardly a challenge despite their numbers, and I was sure I was nearing the level six experience mark.

We probably cleared half the entire army by now, a total of four more hundred stood ahead of us as a black-rock mountain came into view. We've cornered the monsters now, and they seemed intent still on killing us despite how little of them were left.

I dared glances around me to see how many of _us_ were left, and I judged about twenty before I had to duck to my left. I thrust my fifteen-centimeter long dagger through the back of an axe-wielding human-boar demon. It didn't seem to do the trick so I flipped around, grabbed the handle with both hands and forced it up. The creature fell with its body almost cleanly cut symmetrically. I hastily grabbed the spoils before dodging with the dagger and casting a fire spell in the face of a plant-like swordsman. The leaves atop its head caught fire, the creature squealing in pain as it ran away until a second later burst into flames; nothing left but ashes and a cheap sword.

Catching my breath, I sheathed my sword and popped food into my mouth to recover my magic points. Throwing my arms in front of me, palms facing out, I shot both my wind and fire spells at the same time, creating something similar to a mini whirlwind raging with flames. I tried this earlier but I ran out of magic and got clabbered with a skull mace to the nape of my neck. Anyways, this little spell hybrid I used depleted most of the hit points of the ten monsters facing me, allowing a simple bash with my staff at the neck or midsection to cause them to fall.

"Aira--!" I heard Kei scream before a monster roar drowned the sound.

"Kei!?" I ran towards the direction where I thought I heard his voice, hoping I was right. _Don't die on me, Kotaro_… I thought, dodging monsters but occasionally running into one. They didn't want to cooperate with me helping my friend, so I barraged them with another round of spells.

"Ga--!" The voice was loud enough and I spotted him—the black-clad thief was almost entirely surrounded by buff, double-axe wielding badies. I dared not to cast another of the fire-wind spells in case I would hit and kill him. "Kei!"

He didn't look at me but nodded slightly, slicing almost all of one monster's head off while another monster behind him jabbed Kei in the small of his back.

I cast my heal spell as fast as I could without it sounding like a long list of 'hell'. That was the fastest I wasted half my magic bar, but it was to keep Kotaro's character from dying. Now I directed my attention to the beasts closest to me, recovering with one of the last few magic items I had left. Soon we had obliterated the monsters that had threatened to kill Kei, leaving a circle of them wasted at out feet.

Kei grinned at me, parts of his hair stained with dried blood; mine was probably the same way, though. "You're right, Neg…, Airai—this game's a hell lotta fun."

I grinned too, healing the both of us as we ran toward the last hundred monsters lined up against the mountain face. I could see that me, Kei, Laharl, six prinnies, one spell caster, and three warriors were left. Thirteen against a hundred, though it started as about eight hundred against thirty. We were in a great shape, and I _did_ break level six already.

As we were a few meters away from the last line of beasts I looked at the ominous black mountain; it was sleek for the bottom fifty meters then gradually became rocky, all created out of an obsidian-like rock. It was about one hundred-fifty meters total with a flat top, and on that top was something I couldn't make out from here.

I brought my gaze back down to the monsters that I was now in front of. Gripping onto my wooden staff, Kei onto his triangular-shaped daggers, we teamed up and defeated the monsters in a time that seemed so much faster with a friend at my side. Although, there was a trio of three-meter tall creatures with a buff build and four arms each, each of those hands carrying a twisted sword, bone and metal axe, a blood and brain spear with an enormous arrowhead, and a heavy gauntlet.

They seemed formidable, and were, though I used my fire-wind combo twice to lash out and deal a chunk of damage as Kei lunged at one to the other with jabs, slashes and thrusts, keeping clear of the twelve arms. I honestly had no idea how he could maneuver his character to such lengths, but it was awesome.

One monster lunged out at the thief with all four of its arms—probably the brighter of the three—and I tried out another trick of mine. Casting the wind spell, I quickly brought my arm from straight up to the floor like I was hacking something, and it worked: an almost invisible wave of magic flew forth like a crescent, though sharp as a sword edge. In the blink of an eye the monster's arms fell, detached in clean cuts with four limbs spraying blood. It looked at me with its eyes, all bloodshot and roared something like "kill…die…". With my heart pounding in my ears, I performed the same stunt while jumping backwards to cause this monster to fall. One half on either side, an unreal mount of blood laked up around it, while the second of the three fell to a double thrust at it's abdomen and throat. The third was left, clearly unshaken, but with our combined attacks it fell far quicker and honorable than the first.

We grabbed the gold pieces, stuffed them in our pockets, while Kei yelled out, "Yeah!"

"What is it?" I asked already heading to the diminishing ranks of monsters.

He followed besides me, saying, "I've leveled up again." Grinning, I grinned back at him. "I'm level five now."

"Cool; I'm six, almost seven." Glancing and estimating the amount of monsters left, I joked, "If you don't hurry up you will not get another one today."

The two of us ran and continued the fight, alongside Laharl who was almost literally drenched in blood. It was far more horrifying seeing him like this than it was without it, though I thanked again that he was on our side.

_BOOM!_ Startled, I looked over at smoke to see small droplets of crimson fall to the ground. "Doooood!" One of the prinnies said. _That's right,_ I thought. _They can blow up._

A few more minutes passed by as the toughest of the army fought with us. They weren't as menacing-looking as the trio Kei and I just battled, but they didn't seem to want to die even if blood gushed out for seconds and seconds. But eventually, they dwindled down to eleven, one left for each of us who lived.

With a final magic missile spell—which I forgot I had about several times during this fight—my foe's torso blew up and fell, leaving me to hear the familiar tune that said I leveled up once again. I smiled, putting my staff away, and gathering the last bit of spoils. While some of the others still fought, I searched my immediate area for any gold pieces or items left behind, which I found a few of.

With the last of my recovery items used, I had three-quarters left of my magic bar and a whole mess load of gold and items I could sell. The last two warriors were having trouble felling their monster, time I used to look up at the mountain again.

The sleek black stone was like oil, as if saying no one should scale its walls. As I approached I felt my character moving slower; the mountain was well guarded. Up above rocks fell from the top but never got to the smooth portion, and encircling an extra hundred meters above the peak was an ominous black-purple cloud spewing out what seemed to be lightning. _Someone doesn't want people to get up there_, I thought, glancing at the monster who screeched as it died. _Or something_.

The ground rumbled and my vision was becoming shaky as though an earthquake was occurring. I worriedly looked over at Kei, who was looking at me likewise.

"What was that?" I asked, my eyes hurting as the screen before them wouldn't let up.

"I've no idea," he replied, readying his weapons again in case.

I frantically scanned around at the others who didn't seem at all to notice what was going on. Then a low rumbling sound erupted with another sound of rocks sliding against each other. A thin, crooked line began to appear besides me and ran down and round the mountain until it came back up next to me. And as if it wasn't written in the code, Laharl and the rest left to head back to the village as the black mountain began sinking down, lower and lower into the earth, bringing the clouds with it. Black-colored liquid began filling up the open spaces as the rock came down. In a matter of seconds the black mountain became an island in the middle of a black lake.

And there it was. As if over thousands of years have brought it crumbling, an ancient-looking archway stood in the middle of the sea, old runes carved into each side and angle.

But as the rumbling subsided, a thin length of rock connected that island with the archway to the ground in front of our feet, inviting us to go and investigate. It beckoned, and unsure as we were, we went forwards; forwards into more of the unknown.

-author's-note-

I am extremely sorry for not having updated before I went on vacation! My computer was acting up the week before then, so once again; sorry! D:

_The Curious Fan_ – Yep, it's Disgaea. :D

(New picture now uploaded)


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